When All Else Fails: HOPE
by AngelPines
Summary: All she wanted was to achieve the true pacifist ending and see all the secrets of the Underground had to offer. Was that too much to ask? ... apparently. Now Hope has to deal with a mysterious glitch that shows that not all code and data is as easily written as it appears on the screen. And a punderful skeleton who wants answers just as much as she does. Great.
1. Gaining Lost HOPE

****Disclaimer: Hello Fanfiction! It is I, AngelPines! So I know I just finished writing another Undertale story, but creativity happened, and… this story was born.****

 ** **I've been all over this site, and I have yet to see many stories that involve a main character of the game interacting with the real world while still residing in their own dimension, and vice versa. So I decided to make my own, and see what would come out of it.****

 ** **Also, because I forgot to say this when this story first started months ago, I would like to say now that this story came to me after reading The Reply by Lusewing. While my plot is different, the start of theirs was what got me my idea on how ours and Undertale's dimensions interacted.****

 ** **I don't own Undertale, only Hope.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 **"** ** **Reading**** **"**

 ** **Edited: Aug. 19/18****

* * *

You know, this wasn't exactly how she had pictured spending her Saturday. Originally, it was going to be spent playing a simple 10 dollar video game she had bought online, not going on an emotional feels roller coaster with her laptop. But hey, beggars can't be choosers. _Though, this is what I get for hearing people talk about it in class. Curse my curiosity._

A sigh escaped her lips as she directed herself back though Snowdin, towards her last stop before having Frisk leave the Underground forever. How much she had put this child through in the last several hours, and to finally have it all end was overwhelming. __What a feels trip__ , she thought, relaxing into her chair, before frowning.

How was it that a video game could leave so much of an impact on you? Even if you've only played it once, Undertale could be stuck in your head for weeks on end. Hope gazed at the screen, seeing Frisk was now standing in front of the skeleton's house. She had just about finished the true pacifist ending, but after reading online about several secrets such as the different fun values and the secret laboratory, she wanted to go back and discover all she possibly could.

Going full-on pacifist wasn't entirely easy, with how many times she died at Undyne's hands, but Hope swore to herself she wouldn't pull a 'no mercy' run. Doing so would damage any future playthrough, if she ever decided to do such; she didn't want to watch characters being slaughtered either. There was that… and Chara's jump scare made her fall out of her seat screaming after seeing it online.

The soundtrack also didn't help. The well-crafted music could make anyone tear up after hearing it, especially track 71. So after listening to countless people who've played the game, Hope had gotten the true ending. The true lab was downright disturbing, seeing all those innocent monsters in so much pain, forcefully fused together. And after fooling around with the fun value through a few loads at the very start before approaching Waterfall, she managed to unlock Gaster's secret room, which was both intriguing and creepy at the same time.

The last thing Hope had wanted to do, besides seeing Asriel off one last time at the beginning of the whole journey-it was painful to see him so content with never seeing his parents again-was Sans' secret laboratory. One video had shown her that if you reloaded your save file at the judgment hall, Sans would give a secret code word, and if you did this multiple times, he would give you the key to his bedroom.

So, Hope did just that. Giggling at the silly code phrases the skeleton would give you, Hope finally received the key, which let her retrieve the other key to the lab from his dresser. Smiling softly, she went around to the back of the house, and unlocked the door to the basement.

It wasn't much; a couple drawers, some blueprints written in an odd language, and an unknown machine hidden under a tarp. Frisk checked each drawer, and Hope couldn't help but give a small gasp at what she read. " **There's a photo album inside the drawer. There are photos of Sans with a lot of people you don't recognize. He looks happy**."

 _He looks happy._ That one, simple line was enough to make one's heart ache, even if it was just a game. After everything she'd been through, Hope knew that Sans was a lot more than what he showed to the other monsters. It's only in the genocide run do you really see how much he knows about the resets, and how much they've harmed him. Essentially, the player had forced him to that lifestyle. To no longer be interested in getting to the surface, and basically into hiding his depression from his friends and family… from Papyrus.

This was one of the main reasons why Hope flat out chose not to commit genocide. Sans had gone through enough already, and although it took her two tries to get the happy ending-because you had to go back after fighting Flowey to get to the lab-that was all she planned on doing. She couldn't rip away their happiness, over, and over again. It wasn't fair for them. It wasn't fair for Sans and Frisk. _And I usually only play a game once anyway._

Then there was that machine in the corner.

Hope had Frisk walk over to it, out of sheer curiosity. Clicking at it, she watched as the same the message she'd expected read that it was broken. But… what exactly was it? The fandom never had a clear answer, and now she didn't either. "Well, I guess that's i-AH!"

Hope was cut off by a loud, electronic shrieking. Covering her ears, she watched in confusion as her laptop suddenly blacked out. "Wha-what? Are you serious right now!? I still need to save!" _Forget the game! I had other tabs open!_ She rushed to the power button, only for the screen to hum back to life. Everything still, for some odd reason, was still open. Frisk was still in the lab, just as she had left them, except…

The unknown machine's blanket was flung to the floor, revealing a large gray machine with a dark green screen and several red knobs. __Well… this is new.__ Hope had Frisk walk over to the machine, and clicked it. The image began to distort for a few seconds, with the kid's sprite shifting back and forth and the same shrieking sound faintly playing in the background. The text box appeared underneath, as it normally would after clicking on an item or character, but the text itself was a different matter entirely.

The series of symbols flashed across her laptop, shaking as if they were being spoken by someone… or something. __Wingdings…?__ Hope remembered that the unique font held a special place in Undertale, but was this… some sort of Easter egg? A glitch?

Hope's eyes widened, and before the text box closed with the random font, she snapped a picture of the screen with her phone. Just in time too, as the wingdings vanished a few seconds afterwards. "Okay then..." she nodded slowly, and cautiously took the controls again.

Once she brought the game finally to a close after giving the character's their happy ending, Hope opened up her search engine, and brought herself to a translator. Glancing to and from her phone, Hope carefully typed the random wingdings into the filter.

"Now, let's see what happens." She clicked enter. "Oh my… hehe. That's what that glitch was?"

The translated text on the other side of the screen both confused and astounded her. ****comicsans**** ; along with a series of numbers attached at the end that resembled an email address, making her blink in bemusement. "What the font? What sort of Easter egg is this?" Hope stared at the laptop, puzzled and trying to make sense of the newly given information. "Okay, this is… weird. So… my game all of a sudden wants to give me a random email address that supposedly belongs to Sans. That's… that's-oh who am I fooling. This is freaking weird as heck." She sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

 _ _Think Hope. You have an obvious glitch on your hands. What do you do with it?__ She lowered her hand, and stared at the email address, mentally debating on what she was going to do, until…

"Ugh. Forget this." She opened another tab, and brought up her email account. "It's probably fake anyway." Hope typed in the email address, and paused at the message board. __What do I say?__ She closed her eyes in thought, before breaking into a grin. "I got it."

She smiled as her fingers dashed across the keyboard, the clicking echoing in her quiet bedroom. It was short, but it was a perfect message. Hope wanted some way to say goodbye to the wonderful game, and the odd glitch had given her a wonderful opportunity. A chance to voice her thoughts to the game, possibly the game creator himself, on how the game had affected her. _Even if it is through the idea of it being Sans I'm speaking to, it's still pretty clever._

 _ _Now… how should I sign this?__ Hope thought over what to end it with. Her name seemed a little too simple, but what could she possibly put? Should she put the name she used for herself in the game? Nonetheless, the perfect conclusion popped into her head, and Hope smirked as she formed the last few words on the email.

 ** **Sincerely, the**** ** **L**** ** **egendary**** ** **F**** ** **artmaster.**** _Hey, this is his fault for using that as a code._

Hope brought the mouse over to the send button, and hesitated. __Why am I… so nervous? I mean, it's just a glitch, right?__ Nodded in affirmation, she clicked send; the popup indicated it was sent. "And that's… that."

A few weeks flew by, and Hope continued life as normal, not giving one single thought to the unusual glitch Undertale had provided her. Life went on, with preparations for the end of high school fast approaching, and trying to hunt down her prom dress. Scholarships were sent, and the wonderful joy that came with application form after application form tagged along with it. After all, a video game was the least important thing to her, and so it was pushed to the back of her head.

It wasn't until one day, in the evening after running through calculus problems, she found herself hovering the arrow over the Undertale icon. "Not today, guys. You're not being forced to reset under my watch." She smiled in remembrance, before moving on to check for any new messages in her email. "Let's see if any letters have been received yet." However, instead of what she had hoped to come across, there was a certain sender that stood out from the rest. __Is that…?__

Hope quickly clicked on the link, and found herself gaping at the screen. The message took up the left side, as it should, but… but why should she have been given a response!?

Right below the sent email to the glitch, was a reply written in… "c-comic… sans!?"

 ** **so… you think this is some kind of sick game, do you?****

* * *

How smothered Sans had felt in the Underground, when compared to life on the surface, was unbelievable. Humans, despite the initial fear they'd shown in the beginning, were more than welcoming to the monsters. Of course, there were those ones who wished they remained down under the mountain, but he didn't care much more for any heated stares. It was only a few weeks after the kid had destroyed the barrier, and freed everyone once again. Frisk was extremely pleased with themselves, and how well they had handled the reset this round. No fighting, no trouble. Everything went as peaceful as it normally would on a pacifist run.

But still… Sans couldn't help but feel nervous.

The pain of remembering the past resets and timelines weighed heavily on the short skeleton. Frisk had personally told him that they were done with playing with the timelines, and that they were perfectly happy with what they had achieved this time. A strange thing, coming from them. They had never promised to stop before. Yet, seeing that it was so long ago now, he almost could say the kid was being truthful.

It was also no surprise to Sans. He sometimes would hear the child's screams for help from down the hall where they slept. It was no wonder that Frisk wanted to stay in the present. Frisk would occasionally sneak into his room, and curl up next to him in tears. The poor child thankfully never was a bloodthirsty killer, thank goodness. At least… as far as they could remember. However, they still suffered from nightmares about murdercup, the demon child, and the idea of having to leave the young prince in the Underground alone.

Of course, that was only sometimes. Frisk had gotten a lot better at dealing with their night terrors, and after talking to Sans about it, felt a lot better. He could relate. After the first couple resets, he would have trouble sleeping too, in fear that he would wake up… and not have Papyrus alongside him.

But according to the kid, he no longer had to worry about that. "It's alright, Sans!" They had replied, hugging the skeleton with their face buried in his hoodie. "I promised you that there'd be no more resets, remember?"

He did remember. Frisk would continue telling him that whenever he showed any sign of apathy. Still… he wanted to try at least something to get his mind off the timelines, and now… he finally had the perfect distraction.

Sans stood in his lab, staring down the old machine he had lugged up with him from his old home. Papyrus and him had brought most of what they owned with them when they moved into the new house they shared with Toriel and Frisk. The taller brother was ecstatic to see the final outcome of his finished room, while Sans only brought with him a few basic materials. Moving up to the surface, after being down there for so long, material objects didn't hold so much worth to him anymore. Although, without his brother's knowledge, he did sneak a few pictures and blueprints from his old lab with him. Papyrus didn't need to know though. Nobody did.

The machine itself to Sans, was one of his greatest hopes, and disappointments. Besides the resets, Sans could remember a lot of over things that most monsters weren't even aware of. Such as LOVE, EXP… and the old royal scientist.

W.D. Gaster. The name brought a small bittersweet grin to Sans. His father was one of the most brilliant monsters in the entire Underground; from manufacturing the Core, to the initial experiments with determination alongside Alphys. Though, this was all before he had accidentally fallen into his machine all those years ago, wiping the memory of his existence from everyone's memory except Sans'.

Sans shook his head, trying to clear away the depressing thoughts. Why was it him? Oh, just the painful fact he was present when it happened, and heard his father's screams as he fell to his demise. How he had cried-no. Sobbed, for days straight after that had happened. Papyrus couldn't get a word out of him for a week, and he had left his job working with Alphys right after that. There was no need to return there. Not after that.

He quickly shook his skull again. It always hurt to think back on those times, and he didn't need to distract himself. Not when he was so close. "no time to think like that now. time to get to work." He grabbed the blanket covering it, and yanked it off. The machine quietly hummed to life once Sans pressed a few buttons, and began his work once again.

What the machine did exactly, was something only he and Gaster knew. While Alphys was an assistant at the time, same as him, even she didn't know the true extent of the experiments. Gaster had built it to send out signals throughout the void; a black abyss where nothing existed… or at least, that's what everyone else thought. Gaster was determined though that his machine would get a response from somewhere in the void, to prove that there was something else that existed out there besides them. Sadly, his dream did not come to pass, as he soon fell into the Core just weeks after building the machine that stood before Sans, and was lost to the void himself. Dying doing something he loved… that was how he had wished to go.

But now, Sans had fully repaired the machine after they were freed from the Underground. Having been broken for so long, the warmth from the keyboard under his hands brought another smile to him. Sans knew that deep down, it was a long shot in his attempts at reaching the old royal scientist. But he was determined that it would work, no matter what.

The signals that were emitted were still in Gaster's signature font: wingdings. Sans had asked him why he insisted on using those weird symbols, but all he had gotten was:

"It'll be more fun to whoever receives the signal then, wouldn't you agree?"

Ah, he had nodded in understanding. Good ol' Gaster.

It was a gamble, in actually getting a reply. So when the machine finally loaded, what a surprise to Sans when he had found the green screen displaying-

"a reply?" He said in disbelief. "can it be?" Sans leaned forward in his chair, looking at the writing scrawled across the dusty projector. "gaster?"

 ** **Hello, Sans. You may perhaps be wondering, who exactly is it that has contacted you out of the blue? Let's just say… I'm one of many, many anomalies.**** ** **I guess that's the accurate term, so I'll roll with it.**** ** **I won't bother you too much, as you probably have a lot on the go already. So I'll just get straight to the point.****

 ** **Thank you. Thank you for everything you have done for the entire Underground. I know that the kid is mostly responsible for freeing you all, but you deserve a hand too. After all, you were the one watching out for them the whole time. Through the good… and the bad.****

 ** **I may not know if you even remember all timelines, but I can assure you, that I am not responsible for any genocides Frisk had committed. As I said earlier, there are many anomalies. I am just one of the few who are willing to show mercy, and only reset in order for everyone to get their true happy ending.****

 ** **Don't sell yourself short, Sans. You don't deserve so much pain. I know that your brother and Frisk would not want to see you hurting so much. I just wanna know**** ** **though**** ** **…**** ** **if you're happy now.**** ** **The nightmares, the pain… is it all gone? I just wanna let you know, that if there was ever any pain it caused, I didn't mean to hurt anyone.**** ** **Whatever it was, I did it to bring you to the surface, for good this time. After all… why would anyone want to remain in the dark for the rest of their life?****

 ** **I believe I've taken up enough of your time.**** ** **I wish you the best of luck, Sans.****

 ** **Sincerely, the Legendary Fartmaster.****

"oh… my god."

Sans gaped at the screen in shock. The fact his super secret password was added at the end more than confirmed that this message was from the anomaly, but… there was more than one of them?

He could also see that whoever this specific anomaly was, they didn't appear to be malicious in their actions. They actually thought they were doing him a favor, in fixing the timeline so that they could all reach the surface. True, it did work all out in the end, but who's to say that they wouldn't reset again? And who's to say they weren't lying? The message however, did say that they had only reset to get their happy ending. That being said… Sans wasn't quite sure what to think. He squeezed his sockets shut, trying to come up with an answer. How could someone who would constantly destroy their memories and lives, feel so much guilt towards them? And who's to say that they weren't lying to him?

"so that's how you wanna play, huh?" His sockets darkened, and his left eye flashed a bright blue as his fingers ran along the keyboard. The fire from the hole waved past his head, as he thought out exactly what he wanted to say. "hehehe. well, two can play at that game."

 ** **so… you think this is some kind of sick game, do you?****

 ** **you really think you didn't want to cause us any harm? to rip away our freedom over, and over again? but**** Sans paused, the blue blaze lowering for a moment. What if this person was… really who they said they were? Should he be tempting fates, on someone who could alter their timeline and boot him back to the Underground? __aw, screw it.__ ** **but if you really are who you say you are…****

… ****then prove it.****

* * *

 ** **So, there you go! It's perfectly natural to have Sans doubting Hope, seeing how he's been played so many times in the past. But, I would think that after everything he's been through, it would make sense that he's just a little curious in finally getting an answer.****

 ** **AngelPines OUT!****


	2. Questioning HOPE

****Disclaimer: Hello everyone. Thanks to everyone who's checked out HOPE so far! I'm glad you're liking it! This is probably the most popular first chapter I ever posted; you know, before it turns into a larger story. Also, I fixed a mistake in the first chapter because I had no idea the site would cut off the end of the email address. No worries, that's all fixed now.****

 ** **And now… it's interrogation time, people!****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Of course Sans would be cautious. You would be too if you found out a series of people have been controlling your life the entire time.****

 ** **MajorKO: Thanks! I hope this gets some recognition as it gets bigger.****

 ** **Pika5490: Don't worry, all your answers will be dealt with in this chapter. Also, this is by no means a one shot. Things will only get more interesting as it continues.****

 ** **I only own Hope****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Aug. 19/18****

* * *

… ****then prove it.****

"Oh god," Hope gasped out. The teen's mind went blank as she stared at the response. This… this wasn't happening, right? This was obviously a joke. No one had any access to her email account, so then who could have sent the reply? Toby Fox himself? "This is… an Easter egg, Hope," the girl tried to remind herself. "Ye-yeah. Yeah, this is just an… Easter egg." __Then… why am I so unsure?__

Undertale was known for messing with the players, having all sorts of fourth wall breakage. Heck, even that dog physically did so when it absorbed the artifact and ran away off screen! She could even remember the so called 'dirty hacker' ending that one could achieve through tampering with the game's code! That… that must have been it. Toby Fox must've encoded the wingdings within the game that allowed any emails that used the encrypted username to receive a response from the pun-loving skeleton. Hope laughed shakily, and brushed her long dark brown hair out of her face. __Wow, talk about going all out. But… how could that mess with my email then…?__

Maybe she had been spending too much time on the internet reading Undertale stories, but Hope knew for certain that this was anything but normal. She sighed, and hovered the cursor above the reply button. __It's just a glitch, Hope. That's all.__ Hope clicked below the new message, her eyes not straying from 'Sans'' message. Since when could her email account reply in comic sans anyway? Last time she checked, it was always the same font…

 ** **Sans?****

Hope leaned forward, hoping to see a reply right away, but nothing loaded. Frowning, she switched to another tab, and started surfing through Google instead. "It's just a glitch," she repeated. "It's just a glitch." She searched, trying to see if this had ever happened to any other players, but the results kept coming back inconclusive. Nothing. Zilch. __Why is it only me?__ "Perfect," she groaned, propping her head up in her hand with her elbow lying on her chair's arm rest.

"Well, let's check for viruses then." Conducting a quick scan through her online protection, her disappointment grew. "Still nothing." __So I'm not being hacked. If I was, I would have seen something or some clue would have been shown. No one else has my email except for family and school, so then…?__ Hope gave a long hard stare at her laptop, before deciding to finally close it up for the day. She shut down the search tab, and went to log out of her email, until…

A new line had appeared underneath the conversation she had started with the glitch. Hope scanned the message, and gulped. ****were you expecting someone else?****

 _ _Is he… calling me out?__ Hope scrambled to her keyboard, and hastily wrote back. ****Honestly, not really. I'm just… surprised.**** She watched in amazement as the screen refreshed itself without her control, and saw a new line. Since when could the game do that? The only game she had on her laptop right now that could read her files, and mess with them was Doki Doki. Undertale, while impressive as it was, shouldn't have been able to affect her email account.

 ** **why? i thought you would've liked surprises. after all… you surprised me with how much you know about us and the resets.****

 _ _This is… getting a little creepy.__ Hope bit her lip, trying to come up with a response when the screen refreshed again. ****what's the matter? don't like it when someone's playing you?****

Well that caught her off guard. __How'd it know I was stunned? Was it sensing the delayed response?__ Hope scrolled back up to look at her first email, trying to come up with a reason as to why the AI was being so hostile towards her. At this point, it was clear this wasn't the creator playing as his character, but an intelligence built based on the skeleton himself. But Hope didn't do anything wrong, as far as she was concerned. She had made it clear that she wasn't responsible for any genocide runs… if the game was even aware of them, despite not having done one herself. Could it relate to runs done by other people, like she had hinted to in her message?

Still, Hope was certain that Toby couldn't have programmed the thing to respond back so… harshly.

Frowning, she slowly started to type again. __This is… just a glitch, she__ tried to reassure herself. But, the more she sat there and spoke to the glitch, that belief had started fading.

* * *

Sans watched the green screen blink, waiting for a reply back from the anomaly. Sure, he might've come off a little ruder than he meant, but could you blame him? "i know you're still there," he muttered, rapping his bony fingers against the keyboard impatiently. Finally, the wingdings began to appear across the machine. ****I… I didn't mean to upset you. I thought****

 ** **well, you thought wrong there, buddy.**** Sans' eye lit up as he typed, cutting her off. ****you really think you know me enough as to tell me what's wrong with my life? to say everything's okay, and then rip it away without our opinion? do you have any idea what you put me and the kid through!?****

Okay. Maybe he went a little overboard with that one. Sans huffed, and felt the magic die down from his socket, and his glowing pupils returned to his eyes. The room remained silent; the only noises coming from his slow breathing and the whirring of the machine. The new message crossed the monitor, but unlike last time, the words were written much more slowly.

 ** **Sans, I didn't mean to cause you any distress. I was being completely honest; I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I really wasn't responsible for any genocide runs!****

 ** **oh really?**** He chuckled darkly at the heavy sarcasm. ****then who is?****

 ** **I don't… I don't know. Sans, you have to understand that there are**** The wingdings came to a halt, making it seem that whoever on the over side got stuck on something.

 ** **there are what? He pressured. He had them right where they wanted, and they weren't running away that easily. They were clearly hiding something from him, from how the replies were composed. Now, with them backed into a corner, he could finally figure out what was going on.****

 ** **Um… hehe. That's a… very good question.**** ****But maybe it'd be best if I started from the beginning. Sans, do you promise not to get mad at me?****

 _ _What?__ That wasn't what he was expecting, not by a long shot. He just chewed out the anomaly for manipulating them for countless of resets, and they're asking ****him**** not to be mad at them? They were either really stupid or… __they actually feel bad about what they did.__ Sans looked at the lines, and chose his answer.

 ** **i've been waiting far too long to get hold you for everything you've forced us through. honestly, you really ticked me off, pal. but i meant what i said earlier; if you really are the anomaly, then prove it. why are you doing this? who are you, and what do you want?****

Sans sent off the new message, and waited, grinning smugly.

* * *

 _ _Oh gosh, this isn't terrifying at all.__ Hope knew that Sans was scary in the game, if you ticked him off enough, but… this was NOT what she was expecting at all. __This couldn't be happening, could it? I mean, it's just a script in a game, right!? Undertale's just a video game, just a bunch of data and code… isn't it?__

Hope wiped the nervous sweat of her brow, and closed her eyes. __It… wasn't.__ None of what was happening could match up with a normal programmer. Toby could never pull off something like this; changing the message's font, and interacting with her computer and personal email in such a way. __Which… means that…__ Hope Leaned back in her chair, and gave an almost hysterical laugh.

The screen lit up the dark room, the sun already fading past the treeline. __This is…__ Hope finally let out the breath she was unconsciously holding. __This is really happening.__ She gave a forced laugh. "I'm-I'm actually talking to a video game character. Oh gosh, how messed up can this get!?" Sitting back upright, Hope opened her eyes, and stared at the screen. The cursor still blinked, waiting for a response.

"Well… here we go," she murmured, and began writing. ****I should start at the beginning then, I guess. For starters, I would like for you to know my name. Having you see me as only 'the anomaly'… makes me feel weird.**** It sounded like an insult, and that she was in the exact same category as everyone else who ever played the game. __Then again… I sort of am. I'm just the one who got this code.__

 ** **then what do you want me to call you?****

 ** **My name. I'm Hope.****

The screen didn't refresh for a few minutes, and Hope wondered what was taking Sans so long to reply. She looked at the logout button in the corner, and went to select it before it refreshed, showing Sans' message.

 ** **hope, huh? not exactly the name i was expecting, but i'll take it. you know what hope is here, don't you?****

 ** **HOPE. The amount one can take in damage before their soul gives up.**** She had to look it up for the answer when she first started thinking about getting the game, just so she had the basic information down.

 ** **exactly. kinda ironic that you should be named that, and that you're the one who messaged me.****

 ** **I… I don't even know how, to be honest. So, uh, as for your earlier questions. Yes, I am indeed the anomaly, but there really is more than just me.****

 ** **really? then why is it that i'm talking to you specifically? and stop avoiding my questions.****

 ** **Sorry. I'm not trying to, I'm just… trying to wrap my head around this. You see Sans, your world is**** Hope quickly deleted the sentence. Real or not, she was fairly certain that telling Sans that he and his entire world was nothing but a game would not be a pleasant experience.

 ** **my world is what?**** And apparently, he could see what she's typing at all times. __Great. Now I really have to be careful what I type.__ He clearly wanted to know the truth, and trying to dodge the topic seemed to really irritate him. With how the game reacted when she first found the email address, then who knew how it would react if she did something else to anger it.

 ** **Well, Sans.**** Hope took a deep breath, and began typing the dreaded sentences. If she was to do this, it seemed best to be direct. ****You had video games in the Underground, right? Well… that's what you guys are? Frisk's journey through, everything they've done, it's a video game in my dimension. Where I am, it's all a game. I swear, Sans. I never knew all of it was real. I didn't know I was actually affecting your world! I'm so, so sorry!****

Hope could feel her heart speed up at the end of her explanation, and brought her hands away as fast as she could. Why was she getting so upset? She didn't cause him pain. __But you did,__ a voice said in the back of her mind. __You played the game just like the others. You resetted, same as them. Just because you played pacifist, doesn't mean you're not guilty.__

"Shut up!" Hope cried, shaking her head in protest. "How was I supposed to know?" She wasn't crying, no, but the feeling of guilt was still there. In the back of her mind, informing her she wasn't above what she had done. She heard the humming of the laptop as the screen refreshed, and she hastily looked back. ****are you? you seriously expect for me to believe you, and what you sent me at the beginning? sure, you may have thought we were just characters in a game for your own sick amusement, but who's to say you won't reset again? what's to stop you from getting tired of this timeline, and wanting to 'play' with us all over again, and again, and again?****

 _ _That's it.__ Hope gasped in realization, as his message finally struck a bell in her head. Sans was scared of another reset, and being at the mercy of another player. Another anomaly, who could possibly have Frisk commit genocide again, and again, and again, just as he said. __He thinks that... I'm responsible for all those murders.__ After taking a deep breath to calm herself from having the skeleton back her into a corner, she finally knew exactly what to say, and threw herself at the keyboard.

 ** **Please listen, Sans. I made it clear in my email that I never meant any harm; I never meant to hurt you, the kid, or anybody else. True, I did believe that this was just a well-done game, with brilliant characters and an outstanding story line. Maybe that's what made me write the message in the first place, or because of the stupid glitch that crossed my screen in the first place. I know that it should be impossible for us to even be talking right now, but if I'm able to convince myself that this is really happening, and that you're real, then shouldn't you be able to convince yourself to believe me too?****

 ** **That is why I only played the game twice. I only went back to give you all the perfect ending, that's it. I don't know about the other players, but I swear on my soul; I will not allow you all to relive through resets ever again.****

 _ _He doesn't need to know another reason was that playing genocide contaminated the game altogether.__ Yet another reason why she stuck with pacifist. Hope's heart pounded loudly within her chest, echoing in her ears. Time seemed to slow down as she waited for a reply, the girl drumming her fingers on the desk anxiously. It wasn't that much of a shock for it to be slow coming. She was fairly certain that she had managed to break Sans' mind with her explanation/begging for mercy. She knew fully well what he was capable of, and although she was on the other side of the screen, she didn't want to risk him doing any harm through whatever connection that was built. __In terms of programming… and my health.__

 ** **that's, uh… sorry, it's just a lot to take in.****

 ** **Please trust me, Sans. I won't allow any more resets to happen if I can help it.****

 ** **and how do you suppose to do that?**** Hope frowned, racking her brain for an answer. How was she supposed to do that…?

 ** **I, uh… don't really know, to be honest. I think maybe… seeing how you're actually interacting with the real world then…****

 ** **then no other anomaly could affect us as long as long as you're here?**** Sans seemed to finish her thought, to her amusement. ****good idea, kiddo.**** Kiddo? Well, it's better than being called an anomaly. The concept they both thought of seemed a little stretched, but if the way he was speaking hinted that he wasn't below the surface, then it proved that her pacifist run had affected their run. ****just one more thing. how exactly did you end up getting a hold of my signal?****

Hope's eyebrows knotted in confusion. ****Signal? What do you mean?****

 ** **i've been… working on a project for a while. i'm sure you're aware of the void, right?****

 ** **Yes.**** _ _Void. Lower case.__ It might've been higher, but Hope guessed it didn't really matter.

 ** **well, my machine here sends out code out into the void, searching for a response. out of any chance i could possibly get an answer, you somehow responded. so tell me, how did you get a hold of a signal that shouldn't even be able to reach your dimension?****

That… was a very good question. Hope thought back to last week, and the screeching the game caused before the wingdings flashed across the laptop with a glitching Frisk. Now that she really thought about it, and seeing that it wasn't a glitch like she originally thought, it made everything seem even more bizarre. __Why? Why did I get into contact with Sans?__

 ** **Sorry, Sans. To be honest, I don't have an answer to that. All that happened on my end was a random glitch when I was checking out your lab back in Snowdin.**** It might not be the wisest time as to tell him exactly what happened when she got the signal, but that could wait for another time. ****I'm just as clueless as you are.****

 ** **perfect. tibia honest, i didn't expect you to know.****

"Same here, Sans," Hope chuckled softly. "Same here."

* * *

 ** **Now what?****

Sans watched the anomaly-no. Hope. That's what they said their name was. Hope's message shone on the machine, waiting for an answer. They-he wasn't sure of their gender as they had yet to mention it-seemed as clueless as him. It didn't surprise him though. He was as shocked as they were. After all, finding out your entire dimension was a video game that was being manipulated by a series of ignorant humans wasn't something you'd normally hear.

But… how was he supposed to react? Sans groaned, rubbing his the sides of his skull in frustration. He knew for a fact that Hope wasn't telling him everything. They were clearly hiding something from him about how they received the encryption. Nevertheless, they would probably tell him once they got other the shock they were chatting him in the first place. There was, however, one small detail.

Frisk.

Sans lowered his hand, and glanced sadly at the counter beside him. Surrounded by the countless blueprints of code and wingdings, a long picture frame stood. In it, an image that they took right after reaching the surface. Frisk stood in the center of the photograph, Toriel's paws holding their shoulders. The young child was beaming, but Sans could see the hidden pain in their eyes. That emotion was there, every single time they had taken that photo after breaking the barrier. How could he not see it? Now that Sans knew that there were more anomalies, some were not as kind as Hope, had been controlling Frisk every single timeline… Frisk had been influenced without their very knowledge, and they couldn't do anything about it. No wonder they had night terrors, and sometimes seemed completely different. __even with that brat's assistance.__

Boy, what a great friend he'd turned out to be.

 ** **Sans?**** He looked back to the monitor, hearing the faint ping. ****You still there?****

 ** **yeah, i'm still here.**** Sans sighed painfully, slowly typing. ****pal, i wanna make this clear. if you managed to find my signal, then something must have interfered for you to receive it. seeing how in your world, we're nothing but data and code, then it looks like the void is some sort of middle ground for us.****

 ** **Middle ground?****

 ** **yep. the void is a corrupted, empty space. but if what you're saying is true, than it must be an incomplete area of the code itself.**** Perhaps that's why he'd been having so much trouble finding Gaster. The void apparently overlapped his and the other world, so maybe he was unable to get through due him not having the code for both sides.

 ** **If it was never finished, then maybe that's how we're talking.**** Hope mused. Sans could sense their confusion on the other side, sharing his sentiments. ****Um, Sans? What time is it, where you are?****

Sans checked the clock mounted on the wall above the counter, the hands indicating it was almost midnight. __have i really been down here that long?__ He thought in surprise. ****it's almost tomorrow here. you?****

 ** **A few hours behind you. If our time zones are this close, then we can continue our conversation tomorrow, if you would like?****

 ** **that sounds good. i'm sure we'll have a skele-ton to talk about tomorrow.****

The screen hummed, and Sans felt a pleased grin stretch across his skull at the reply. ****Ha ha! Well then, I'll try not to fibula while we chat.**** _ _nice to know this person's got a sense of humor too.__ ** **Bye, Sans.****

 ** **later, kiddo.**** Sans flicked several switches at the bottom of the machine, and the whirring slowed down to a stop. Sans blinked, and felt his smile stretch even further, before laughing. The deep, rumbling sound echoed around the dark room.

This really was going to be an interesting timeline.

And hopefully… it'll be the last they'll ever have to go through.

* * *

 ** **So the truth is out. But how is Sans going to deal with all this unexpected knowledge?****

 ** **Who knows. Guess you'll have to wait until next time!****

 ** **Angel is out, peace!****


	3. HOPEful Beginnings

****Disclaimer: Hey, everyone! How interesting, how this has become the quickest growing story I've posted. Two chapters in, and already gaining a following.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Yeah, it's definitely a unique concept I'm using. Poor Sans. He may have some answers, but there's a lot more than he and Hope know about what's happening between the dimensions.****

 ** **Andonexus KotD: Aren't I just punderful?****

 ** **Pika5490: Well, here we are! Get ready for another skelly-ful chapter!****

 ** **INFJwriter: Thanks! Unlike my other two stories, this is entirely not following a script. Making it up as I go along. Serious Sans is an important part to the story. He may have been merciful in the beginning, but the anger he felt after all the resets and pain he went through sort of blinded his judgment. Also, I'll be more careful in making sure Sans is all in lowercase.****

 ** **I only own Hope and her mom. Everything else is Toby Fox's.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Aug. 22/18****

* * *

Early in the morning, an exhausted zombie crawled out of bed. Slowly sitting up, she brushed her hair out of her face, including the small strand stuck in her mouth. Smacking her lips, Hope yawned, and checked the full length mirror across from her. "Mmm…" she hummed, glaring at the reflection with bloodshot eyes. This was what she got for staying up on her laptop until all hours of the night. But… why was she on her computer-oh.

 _ _Right,__ Hope's tired expression lit up into one of remembrance. __I was talking to Sans.__ She closed her eyes, nodding with a faint smile until snapping her eyes open. "Oh gosh, I was talking to Sans!" She jumped slightly, but the sheets were still tangled around her lap and legs from just returning to the world of the living. "Oh crud!" Hope's arms flailed as she fell sideways and collapsed onto the light brown shag rug below. "Errr…"

"Hope!" A voice yelled up from outside her door, followed by the rapping of knuckles on the wood. "Are you up yet, dear?"

"Yeah, mom!" Hope shouted. "I'll be down in a sec!" She reached down and untangled her legs. "Hehe. What a way to start the day." Looking over to her laptop and the closed lid, Hope climbed to her feet and crept up to it. She pressed the power button, and began to go through the routine of booting it up. __Was last night just a… dream?__ _ _Did I just imagine all of that happened?__ Her email soon filled the screen, and her heart sped up at the sight of the chat board between her and the glitch-Sans. She was... talking to Sans. _It really was real._ _ _That's… gonna take some getting used to.__ Logging out, she quickly threw on the clothes from yesterday that still laid haphazardly on the floor, and checked her reflection in the mirror.

A pair of dark gray pants and a light gray tank top fit snugly on her body, and her dark brown hair flew messily around her mid back. Behind the red hues in her tired eyes, misty blue pupils showed mixed emotions; mostly directed towards a certain skeleton. "Ooh boy," Hope sighed. "This is gonna be a long, long day." Opening her bedroom door, she walked out into the hall and down the stairs. Their house wasn't anything too special. The second floor only held a shared bathroom, her room, and her mom's room. The downstairs just has a kitchen, another bathroom, and a living room with small tables for eating. It wasn't much, but it was home.

Turning the corner at the bottom of the stairwell, she grinned at the older woman in the kitchen. Her mom was busily eating a bowl of cereal she prepared for herself at the counter, not bothering to sit down and take her time. Hope's mother bore a strong resemblance to the young girl, with shorter brown hair in a bob, a narrower face, and an inch taller than her. "Hey mom."

"Morning dear," she called. She sat the spoon down, and walked over to give her a hug. "Sorry, Hope. Work called. They need me to come in early." __That explains the medical scrubs.__ Her mother worked as a nurse, which usually ended up having her work strange hours. Hope had gotten used to it, and had taken to keeping care of the house when she wasn't around.

"Alright mom." Hope nodded, and leaned to the side to let her mom through into the living room. "I'll see you after work."

"No school today, Hope?" The older woman asked, sliding on her coat.

"It's an in-service day. Students don't have to show up for classes," she said, taking a bite out of an apple from a fruit bowl. Wiping the juice from her mouth, she grinned. "I just plan on hanging around the house. Doing chores, watching TV. Normal teenage stuff."

"Alright, Hope," her mom chuckled. "Have a nice day."

"You too, mom!" She closed the door, and Hope sighed. Once she heard the car engine rev outside, and the car pull out of the driveway, her shoulders sagged in relief. "Finally, now I can vent." The ticking sound of the clock on the wall bounced around in the silent room. Open windows let in the sounds of the outside world. Everything was peace-

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"

Now she was normally a very calm, easygoing person. A little socially awkward, but she was fine with that. Her mom and the few people she talked to at school were fine with that too. However, when something really, ****really**** huge happens, Hope tended to let her emotions get the best of her.

"How on earth can I even be talking to him!?" Hope pulled at her hair in frustration. "I mean, yeah, the game can be pretty freaking sentient when it wants to be. But this!? I-I didn't sign up for this! Wh-why am I the one who got this glitch!? Wh-why not someone who's played the game more than twice?" She dragged herself to the living room couch, and slouched down in it with a groan. "Why me…?"

 _ _Is it because I chose to only play twice?__ Hope wondered, her head in her hand. __Is it because I didn't want to cause Sans, Frisk, and everyone else any more problems then they already went through? I may not know as much as the other players, but I knew enough to know that a true reset meant.__ Her thoughts were one thing. Her emotions were on a different level entirely. Confusion and guilt were primarily there, fighting over either the fact she was communicating across the multiverse with a skeleton or that she did treat a living being as a game character for several hours.

She lifted her head up, and looked towards the staircase. Just upstairs, her laptop sat there, waiting for her to continue the conversation. __How am I not a mental wreck right now? Sure, I had a mild panic attack last night, but I'm surprisingly coping with this a lot better than I thought I would.__ Even with everything, she was amazed she was taking it so… easily.

 _ _I don't wanna say something in case I mess something up, and I don't wanna do anything in case I do something… did that even make any sense?__ In some way, yes. Hope didn't want to accidentally say something to Sans that upset him even more than the whole 'you and everyone else is a video game, you're not real' thing. She also didn't want to do anything on her computer to mess up their unusual connection. While Hope did mess around with the code to get Gaster's room by setting the fun value, she feared that playing with it any more would either damage the ability to talk to the skeleton, or…

She could damage their world accidentally. Hope choked on her apple after taking another bite, having brought it over with her, the idea scaring her severely. Slamming the fruit on the counter, she hit herself in the chest, coughing up the piece lodged in her throat. "Ew." Taking a napkin, she wrapped the food in it and tossed it into the compost bin across the room.

Panting a little, Hope got up out of her chair, and walked towards the patio door. Placing a hand on the glass, she stared out into her backyard. Smiling fondly at the scenery, she watched the light breeze blow the flowers in her mom's garden around. __It's a beautiful day outsid__ _e._ _ _Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. On days like this, people like me… should really be questioning their life choices.__

At times like this, she really wondered what was going on in her life. Sighing, she looked back into the kitchen, her back against the sliding door. "I wonder… how Sans is handling all this," Hope murmured.

* * *

Sans strolled through the streets of Ebott, a carefree grin on his face. That, for once, reflected his actual emotions. No longer needing to feel pressured, the skeleton could finally relax a little, knowing he had at least some of the answers he was looking for.

 _ _this really is a nice day,__ Sans thought, humming softly. Looking up, he could make out the sign of New-Grillby's farther down the road. "finally," he said to himself. Approaching the double doors, he swung them open, feeling the familiar warmth and smell of the bar. "mornin' everyone!"

"Hey, Sans… hi, Sans… hiya, Sansy!" The other customers welcomed him, raising their drinks to his presence. Waving his bony hand, he looked to the counter, and felt his soul clench at the sight of the young child on the stool. Frisk, still wearing the blue and purple sweater from their journey, spun around and smiled. o _ _oh, boy.__ Sans felt his grin strain, and gave a small wave. __here we go.__

"hey kiddo," he greeted. He pulled himself onto the stool beside Frisk, and patted them on the back. "so, how've you been?"

"I've been pretty good," they beamed. "Toriel has been teaching me how to bake her butterscotch-cinnamon pie! And I got an A on my science test!" They knew they'd get it right. They had Sans to help them, after all.

"hehehe. good for you, kid." Sans looked around, and checked to see if anyone was listening to them. Thankfully, it appeared that all the other patrons were too busy in their own conversations. __now's as good a time as any.__ He allowed his magic to flare up slightly, and Frisk gave a small gasp. The kid saw the swift change in atmosphere as everyone else but them froze, and turned to Sans anxiously. Frisk had only seen him do this once before, when he warned them about Flowey talking to Papyrus. And even though it never harmed them… seeing him use that specific power at a moment like this didn't sit well.

"S-Sans?" Frisk inched away on their stool from the skeleton, and Sans felt his soul drop. __kid still doesn't fully trust me.__ He sighed, and shook his skull. It came as no surprise, since he only froze time when he felt it was serious enough to tell Frisk something important. But now that he had the knowledge of other anomalies besides the one he talked to, Hope, he knew that Frisk wasn't always responsible for their actions.

"listen, kid. i wanna be straight with you, okay?" Sans asked, his pupils dimming from his sockets. "remember that door you accidentally discovered this timeline? and the monster inside?" It didn't happen entirely often. Frisk had briefly seen Gaster before, but had never truly paid that much attention to him. They were always so focused on the goal at the end.

"Yeah…?" Frisk answered slowly. "What about hi-" their eyes widened, and they leaned forward in interest. "Do you know who he was?"

"yep. his name's w.d. gaster. he's… an old pal of mine," he replied, somewhat avoiding the question. Frisk didn't need to know Gaster's and his relation until much later if needed. Now was not a good time to say anything more. "well, he had created a machine to search through the void, to see if their was any life besides ours. it… didn't end well."

"He fell into the Core, didn't he." At his shocked expression, Frisk clarified, "I ran into some of his old workers while walking around Hotland. More often than those times I found the door in Waterfall."

Of course they did. Sans nodded slowly, and took a swig from the ketchup bottle in front of him, trying to relive some of his stress. "anyways, as i was saying before. the device sent out a signal designed by him to search for life, and would come back with a response if it found any. i… last night, frisk, i finally got an answer. just… not the one i was expecting." He took a deep breath, and turned to face the human head-on. "i had somehow gotten the anomaly to answer, kid. the thing that is responsible for the resets, the various timelines, everything."

Frisk felt their heart speed up at this revelation. They had heard of an anomaly in multiple timelines. That something forced all the resets, and made them all go back to the beginning of the journey, over and over again. Frisk knew it wasn't their fault. They never wanted to harm their friends, their new mom, anyone. But somewhere deep down, Frisk would sometimes feel an odd tug on their soul, and would be forced to reset, even if they didn't want to. The pull would make them commit actions they never wanted to do. Say rude comments, refuse to help their friends… brutally kill every monster they encountered.

Frisk wanted to tell Sans the truth for ages, but they worried he would never believe him. Why would he? When he had every right to hate them; for striking down Papyrus without a second thought. True, the short chubby skeleton had eventually warmed up to them, after they stopped their genocide run and resetted right after killing him, for they saw their mistake as they watched Sans crumble to dust before their eyes. But… had he ever ****really**** forgiven them? The odd tugging would come and go, either letting them make their own decisions, or act as its puppet.

"kid?" Frisk blinked, and looked at Sans. He studied their face carefully, looking at their reaction. "you alright, bud?"

"I'm… fine," they admitted quietly. "Sans. Who IS the anomaly? Why… why did they do this?"

"that's the thing, kid," Sans scratch his head. "there's actually more than one. anomaly, i mean." Frisk gaped at him, silently pressuring him to continue. "according to hope, the person i ended up contacting, our dimension isn't… real where they are. to them and the other anomalies responsible for everything, we're just characters in a game."

"We're… characters in a game?" Frisk repeated, and ran a hand through their short brown hair. That… that's not true. Was… was that it? Was all of this, all of what they've been through, just a game? Then… what does that make them? "Is… that all we are? Sans, am I just someone to… manipulate? To play out some sort of game for their fun?" Frisk felt themselves shake, and could feel tears start to prick out of the corners of their eyes. "I'm… just a puppet?" Even they were… they were being controlled too? _Chara._ __So… Chara and me… we're just puppets. Has anything I've done in any timeline, ever been me?__

"frisk." Sans put his hand on their shoulder, and he grimaced as the child stiffened under his fingers. "listen kid, and listen good. you are ****not**** a puppet, okay? yes, the anomalies were responsible for your… bad runs," he said carefully. It would not be a good idea to say genocide runs in front of them, in fear of upsetting the child more than they already were. "you still had as much control as them. all they did was push you, giving you small hints on how to act and what to do. the child in front of me right now is ****not**** a murderer. kid, you are not evil. you are also not a puppet. you're you."

He sighed, and felt his lights return to his sockets. "frisk, remember that anomaly i first mentioned?" Frisk shook their head, and he proceeded explaining. "they're the reason for this run right now. they said that they only resetted once in order for you to have the 'true' ending. they didn't want you to suffer." __or me. but… why me? frisk i can understand, but… me?__ "we believe that as long as we continue holding this connection between their dimension and ours, any players cannot effect our timeline. they would be able to play still, but it wouldn't hurt us in any way."

Really? Frisk wiped their eyes. So… "so does that mean we… won't have to worry about ending up back in the Underground again?" They asked hopefully. "We're… we're really free?"

"hehe," Sans laughed, and let his magic fade out. Like someone flipped a switch, the bar was immediately filled with the loud conversations of the other monsters once again. grillby walked up to them, and took the bottle away. "thanks, grillby." The elemental remained silent, and went back to polishing a shot glass. g _ _uess i don't have to mention putting it on my tab.__ Grillby certainly knew how to read an atmosphere, thank goodness for that. "yeah, kid. we're really free. this time around, i'd like to think that everything we've been through is behind us now."

But… was it really? Sans felt his soul twist at the slight lie. He was certain that their peace wouldn't last for long. No pacifist timeline lasted forever. Whether it was a few days, or a few months, Frisk ended up taking them all back underground at some point. Now that he knew that the players were responsible, and not the kid themselves, it did change the reason. It didn't however, change the possibility. Resets were still quite possible, and the skeleton knew that whatever small hope that the entire monster population and Frisk had, laid on his and Hope's shoulders.

 _ _oh, we're in for a ride,__ Sans thought with a small laugh. He jumped off his stool, and cast a comforting grin at the kid. The nine year old mirrored the expression, and hopped down to join him. "let's get you home, kid."

The two walked out of New-Grillby's, and started off down the street towards Frisk's and his house. Sans' pink slippers thumped against the sidewalk, matching Frisk's smaller and quicker pace. The sun shone down on them, warming his bones under his heavy hoodie. Compared to the cold of Snowdin, Ebott was more mild in its weather. _might wanna mix up my outfit down the road._ It only took a few minutes for them to finally arrive at their destination, and Sans smiled up at the sight.

The large two story house stood across from them on the other side of the road. Asgore had decorated the front lawn with a multitude of various flowers and well-groomed hedges, while a freshly baked pie was cooling on the windowsill in the kitchen. __now this,__ Sans opened the door to let Frisk in. __this is home.__ "hey everybody. we're back."

"SANS!" Papyrus poked his head out from the living room, and walked over to meet them. "DID YOU AND FRISK HAVE A NICE TIME?"

"yeah bro. it was a real blast." He patted Frisk on the head, chuckling. "sorry kid, but i've got something i need to do. we'll chat more later, okay?"

"Okay, Sans!" Frisk said. "But it will be bonely without you." The made finger guns, and gave a wink. Sans' grin widened, and looked up at Papyrus' disappointed face.

"NO! NOT YOU TOO, FRISK!" Sighing, the taller brother stormed off back into the other room, leaving them alone.

"hehehe. nice one, kid. welp, i better get to work." Sans went to go back outside to the locked basement door, only for a tug on his hoodie to stop him. "uh, frisk?" He stiffened, feeling the young child suddenly wrap their arms around him. __relax, sans. the kid isn't dangerous anymore. you're safe.__ His bones eased only a little at his internal criticizing, and Frisk looked up at him. Their brown eyes brimmed with an unknown emotion.

"Sans, please. If you find out anything else about what's going on, you'll let me know, right?" They released him, and wiped a bit of water from their face. "I-I can't stand not knowing why this is happening. I need answers, just as you do. If-if you find out anything, anything at all, tell me. Please."

"i…" __should i?__ The kid had been through so much for so long, was it really a good idea, to saddle them with so much more? Yet…

Sans could feel the human's determination pulse through their soul, and smiled sadly. They've gone through so much NOT to get an answer. After facing Undyne, a demonic weed, and… him, they could handle a multidimensional Q&A. "alright, kid. if i hear anything from hope, i'll let you know." He stepped back outside, and waved to Frisk before closing the door. He stood on the doorstep for a moment, and heard the child mumble about the new human's name and the irony of it. "nice to know they see it too. hehe. shame stubbornness isn't a soul trait. kid would be the most powerful in that category."

He strolled back around the house, and with the key stored in his shorts pocket, unlocked the basement door at the rear of the building. After going inside, he locked the door behind him before descending the staircase. The steps creaked under his weight as he finally entered the room, and flicked on the light switch. "now let's see if they're online." The room looked exactly like the lab back in the Underground, except it was much cleaner. It had to be. Seeing how much he was using it, and that the others needed to know he wanted a work space, it was a given.

A few buttons and switches later, the green screen lit up, and the lab was once again filled with the machinery humming to life. Sans relaxed into the wheeling chair, and brought himself closer to the keyboard. Cracking his skeletal fingers, Sans closed his sockets in a silent prayer before sending the first message.

 _ _please. please respond. i can't go without having no answers anymore. i__ ** _ ** _need_**_** _ _something to look forward to. that things won't continue as they are.__ Sighing, he sent the first message.

 ** **knock knock.****

…

…

 ** **Who's there?****

Sans laughed in relief, his pupils dancing in excitement. t _ _hey… they really came back.__ ** **edna.****

 ** **Edna who?****

 ** **edna-ice to see you're giving me a chance, hope.****

 ** **Well Sans…****

* * *

Hope looked at the laptop fondly, feeling the anticipation behind the simple sentence. ****Looks like you're about to get one.****

* * *

 ** **Honestly, I love this chapter to death, but it took me all week to write it. Ugh, I'm tired.****

 ** **Anyways, I HOPE you're excited for next week's chapter! I know I am!****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	4. The Other Side of HOPE

****Disclaimer: I'm back, people of the Internet! With another chapter to this punderful story. This time, we're focusing solely on Sans, and how this is effecting him.****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: Really? I'd probably pass out from either excitement or terror. It's Sans. No matter what, even if he seems like a really nice guy, he could kill you very easily. It all depends on the first impression you make.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: I felt my heart break writing Frisk's view on the anomalies and that they're only a game in the other dimension. Let's be honest here, no one else could go through what they did. This is why they are the red soul; they're determined.****

 ** **Pika5490: No Google, unless she needs help in figuring out certain character traits. But she'll be very careful in responding. Hope doesn't want to say too much, in fear of doing something she'll regret later on.****

 ** **musicalocelot: Welcome to the fandom! Hope we don't scar you too much. On another note, glad you're enjoying the story so far!****

 ** **RedNight17: Huh. Never even knew I made a reference. Also, I'm trying to make this as relatable as possible.****

 ** **DragonNOOB: Well, I doubt I'll throw in the Doctor into this, but I see where you're coming from.****

 ** **coolguy971: Thanks! My time is equally split between this and my Gravity Falls story, so I'm glad that whatever time I spend on this is worth it. Two chapters for two different stories in one week isn't easy.****

 ** **I own Hope and her family. Sans and everyone else belongs to Toby Fox.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Aug. 28/18****

* * *

 ** **So… where should we begin?****

Sans raised a bone brow at the question, and Hope quickly added another line to finish her thought. ****I mean, we may have cleared up some important questions, but it's obvious that you and I both have lots to talk about. However, I understand if you want to start off slow in our discussions.****

They made a fair point. He knew that Hope was keeping their secret about how they got a hold of the signal, and he was keeping his secret of Gaster. All he knew from them was that it was a glitch. But there must have been something that caused it to happen. They had to have done something to trigger it. __perhaps we__ _ _should start off with something small first, until they warmed up to me.__ Sans felt himself frown at the idea. Hope seemed to be trying their best at trying to keep him happy, and keeping his mind off the past resets. Exploding at the innocent human who wasn't responsible for the genocide runs and threatening them… he had done the same thing to Frisk at one point, didn't he?

"sans, you really are a horrible friend," he mumbled under his breath. His phalanges dashed along the keyboard, feeling his soul flinch at the upset emotions. ****small questions should be a first. i know nothing about you. i'm also certain that the game didn't reveal everything about me to you players.****

 ** **True. You are probably the most complicated character in the whole game; in my opinion at least. Mostly because you keep secrets, and don't always tell the truth.****

 _ _since when am i a liar?__ He though in confusion, before typing out the question aloud.

 ** **Because you lied to Papyrus in one neutral run where the player had Frisk kill everyone except him. You said that everyone went on vacation.****

… oh. He did, didn't he? That was a timeline from a long, long time ago. It was one of his least favorites, right before the full-on genocide. It had destroyed him to tell that to his younger brother, that all the people he cared for were 'on vacation'. It was just… Papyrus was so guiltless and pure. He wouldn't be able to handle hearing that the young child he thought of as a friend had murdered every monster they met.

 _ _yeesh, kid. you really know your stuff, huh?__ ** **yeah, i forgot about that. surprised you knew about that timeline.****

 ** **Yeah, well, I may not have done any killing myself, but that doesn't mean I didn't watch walkthroughs though. I know about most of the outcomes, Sans. I didn't like what I saw, so I tried**** ** **to make create my own ending.****

 ** **that's real nice of you, kid. but, uh, how 'bout we do some real chatting now, okay?****

 ** **Sure thing, Sans. Oh, uh… what gender,do you think I am? I'm asking because, well… I don't think I told you, and since Frisk**** ** **is gender neutral…****

 ** **relax, hope. tibia honest, i kept thinking you as neutral since you never made it clear. but if you want to give me an answer, that'll make things much easier.****

 ** **I'm a girl.**** Sans could feel the amused face radiating off the wingding font, and could tell she was happy he had asked such a question. ****Got a problem with that, bone boy?****

"bone boy?" He repeated, chuckling at the nickname. "well, it's better than smiley trashbag." The murdercup's degrading name was supposed to get a rise out of him. Instead, all it got Flowey was a Gaster Blaster to the face and a severe stomping in Snowdin's forest.

 ** **nah, kid. i don't have a problem with that. what about your age?****

 ** **Sans! Have you ever heard about the unspoken rule of never asking a girl her age? It's rude.****

She's giggling, Sans could tell. Hope was really enjoying this, and so was he. ****c'mon. you're smiling.****

 ** **I am, and I love it. I'm eighteen, Sans.**** Eighteen. That's much younger than he thought. Eighteen years old… she was only just out of childhood. ****Alright, my turn.**** The font paused for a minute, indicating Hope had stopped to think. ****What's your age, Sans?****

 ** **Sans?****

 ** **Are you still there?****

 ** **kid… are most of these players your age?****

 ** **Uh, yeah, sort of. Most of the Undertale fans are teenagers and young adults.****

Teenagers and young adults. The cause of his pain for who knows how long… were young. Young and… never knew the entirety what they were doing. The skeleton felt his hands shake, and he could feel the cyan flame stir in his empty socket before putting it out as fast as he could. Not of anger, and rage this time, but of slight guilt. "how could they know what they were doing?"

He could blame them, for the continuous timelines and resets, but...they were ****kids****. Some might have been older, far into adulthood, but still. They were all blissfully unaware of the damage they were creating. It had always destroyed him to kill Frisk in their genocide. He knew it hurt them too; each, and every time he had run a sharpened bone through their stomach, or blew them to bloody bits with a blaster. The child always had tears streaming down their face as they were beaten furiously across the golden hallway, filled with sadness, and… knowing they deserved every bit of it. Before they knew of the anomaly, they thought they deserved it for working with Chara. These players didn't know what they were doing, same as Hope and Frisk. The only thing that separated them from everyone else was that they knew the truth. If they knew… maybe things would be different-

"no." Sans shook his head, banishing the idea. "if anyone else knew of this…" __who knows how much it would effect the dimensions.__ Gaster wanted answers, and look where that got him. Sans did not want to dwell on that, on the past in general. There was nothing he could do to change the other players' reactions, and somehow convince them to stop playing. After all, one cannot simply stop a gamer from gaming. That's like… asking him to quit drinking ketchup. It wasn't gonna happen any time soon.

 ** **Sans?**** The ding from the monitor woke him from his internal war. ****Are you alright? You got… very quiet, all of a sudden. I didn't do anything to upset you, did I?****

 _ _she still thinks she's responsible for my suffering,__ Sans felt his magic die down altogether as he stared in disbelief at the screen. s _ _he's either really crazy… or really kind.__ Kindness. If he had to take a whack, he bet that was Hope's soul trait. But, since he couldn't see her in person, it was hard to judge her. ****no. i'm alright, hope. i just… never expected that answer.****

 ** **You mean the age of your anomalies being so low?****

 ** **yeah.****

 ** **Sorry. Thought it'd be something you ought to know.****

 ** **don't sweat it, kid. you didn't know what would happen. eighteen, huh? okay then. try and guess my age, kid.****

 ** **Your age? Hmmm… that's something that is very hard to tell, tibia honest.**** Ah, she was using bone puns too. It wasn't cheering him up as much as he would've liked it to, but it was a nice thought. ** **The fandom never had an exact answer, since apparently you guys, the monsters, can live for a very long time. If I had to guess though… maybe in your late twenties, early thirties?****

Wow. She honestly thought he was ****that**** young? Laughing at Hope's guess, he replied back. ****pretty far off there, pal. i'm actually thirty-eight in monster years. in human years… weren't you the one who said it was rude to ask how old one is?****

 ** **You're ancient, aren't you?****

Sans let out a small snort at that. She had no idea. ****yeah. i'm ancient, kid. monster and human ages are fairly complex. i wasn't even born yet at the time of the war. technology was just starting to appear in the underground when i came around. sort of how i became involved with gaster's project.****

 ** **So, monsters age much more slowly than humans?****

 ** **yep.****

 ** **Wow, hehe. This is my first time talking to an older man.****

 ** **ha ha. very funny.**** Sans chuckled, his glowing pupils dancing in happiness. Now if only all their conversations were this easy. ****so, what else do you want to ask me?****

 ** **Favorite color?****

Really? That was the best she could come up with? ****seriously, kid?****

 ** **Sorry, panicked for a moment.****

 ** **no need to fibula, kid. you're just nervous about this, aren't you.****

 ** **Well can you blame me? I'm talking to YOU. No offense or anything, but I had several mental breakdowns already trying to comprehend how on earth we're communicating.****

 ** **none taken.**** Tibia honest, he had expected it. __i need new material. how many times have we used that pun already?__ If she was in her shoes, he would've freaked out too. But… hadn't he?

When Hope had informed him about him being from… a video game, he mentally shut down. Sans knew about timelines, resets; but alternate dimensions? He had only done theories about them. True, he had always imagined an outside force, an anomaly, controlling when and where there would be a reset. He knew Frisk had the power to perform the reset, but the unimaginable concept of an outsider looking in on their lives, at least the part involving the kid's journey, and making their choices for them… he would have never have killed the kid in cold blood in their genocide run if he knew the truth.

 _ _i wonder what would've happened if i addressed them instead of chara…__ "hehehehe," Sans chuckled, the idea amusing him. ****what about you?****

 ** **Blue. Not a bright sky blue, but a dark midnight.****

 ** **guess that's another thing we have in common. though, mine is more of a navy.****

 ** **What was the first?****

 ** **our shared interest in terrible puns.****

 ** **Oh.**** She paused. ****What can I say? I have a skele-ton.****

 ** **but i have more of a backbone to pull 'em off.****

 ** **True. I just use them to life a person's spirit.****

 ** **ghost joke? alright then. what's a ghost's favorite ice cream flavor?****

 ** **Hmmm… I'm gonna go with booberry.****

 ** **booberry? i was gonna say cookies and scream. nice try though, pal.****

 ** **Clever, Fartmaster. Verrrrrrry clever.****

 ** **alright, alright. my turn.**** Sans actually had a few basic questions that had popped up into his skull as they typed. Somethings that were simple, and wouldn't create any tension between them. ****what exactly do you look like? since you've played the game, you obviously have an idea of what i look.****

 ** **Yeah, but it's all pixel art. It's not as exact as I would've liked. I'm 5 foot 7, with dark brown hair that goes to my shoulder blades, and I have misty blue eyes. I usually wear gray, white, and black clothes like tank tops, sweaters,**** ** **and sweat/stretch pants. I don't do much with bright colors. I prefer basic, casual clothing.****

 ** **well then, i should probably describe myself then too, since your system doesn't do any justice.**** His permanent grin stretched, and he could sense the human's excitement on the other side. It would make sense, seeing how the players never had any confirmed answer as to what he looked like. __wonder how they pictured me?__ ** **i'm 4 foot 6. i wear a dark blue hoodie with white fur trim around the hood itself, a white t-shirt, black basketball shorts with two white stripes on each side, and pink slippers. i'm fairly big boned, aka, broad. It was his bones themselves. Unlike a normal skeleton, his were more built.****

 ** **Pink slippers, huh? It was always a debate whether you wore sneakers or slippers. Why pink though?****

 ** **why not? i'm too lazy to go through the annoyance of tying shoes all the time. slippers are much easier to deal with.****

 ** **Because we all know how much you hate work. The height also doesn't surprise me. On the game, it showed that your height was roughly the same as Frisk's. My turn for a question. What is it like to have Papyrus as a brother?****

Okay, now that was a question he had been waiting to show up. After all the depressing moments they had accidentally caused each other, talking about his brother made his soul feel a lot better. ****it's exactly what you would imagine it to be. my brother is definitely the coolest guy i know. he doesn't let anything stop him from achieving his dreams, unless it involved harming someone. his cooking does need a little work however, but he's determined to make a dish that's edible for the kid. he's strong, and brave, but what i love the most about paps is that he'll give up everything to make sure his friends are safe.****

 ** **Sans?**** He never gave up them… even at his last moments, he never gave up on Frisk.

 ** **Sans, is there something else to that answer? It seemed like you drifted off there.**** Really? How long did he zone out there?

Glancing at the clock, he noticed it was a delay in his response since last time. Quickly, he sent off a message to try and reassure her. ** **sorry, kid. it's just that… paps' innocence. it's been his greatest quality, and his greatest downfall in every timeli****

 ** **Sans, stop it.**** He blinked, seeing the girl abruptly cut him off. That was odd. Before, it was him cutting her off from talking. ****How many times do we have to go through this? Yes, there was nothing you could've done to prevent the genocide runs. Even if he couldn't fully remember, I know for a fact Papyrus can vaguely remember Frisk. He may or may not have some memories of his death at their hands, but whatever the answer, he knew that he could've died.****

 ** **He was willing to give up his life, just to try and give them a chance at redemption. Don't even get me started on Frisk's side of this.**** The emotional toll it must've been on them, to have to kill Papyrus, have him come back in the next reset, and have to relive this cycle for who knows how many times…

She… really knew her stuff for only playing twice, despite the second time only being required for a pacifist ending. Sans chuckled bitterly, finding relief in her explanation. Though, seeing how she had really hit home with some of those points… he had to swipe the underside of his sleeve over his sockets. Lowering it, he saw Hope wasn't done her rant yet.

 ** **It's not just you suffering, Sans.**** He could've sworn, if there wasn't a dimension blocking them, the human would've been hugging him. __you're too kind kid, y'know that?__ ** **Frisk must've been very relieved at the extended timeline since no one had forced them to reset so far. Boy, she had no idea.****

 ** **they are. i hope you don't mind, but i'd told them about our conversation.****

 ** **You told Frisk about this? Um… were they mad at me?****

 ** **a little, yeah. but i made it clear that you weren't responsible for any malicious runs. they'd also told me to keep them updated on any new information i get from you.****

 ** **That's nice of you, Sans. I wouldn't blame them for being mad at me though. There have been players who would only play genocide and no mercy runs. Frankly, it disgusted me. Mostly because, in the game, it would damage any further attempts at trying to get a pacifist ending. Chara would always be there, no matter what you did.****

 ** **same here, hope.**** The skeleton practically growled at the thought of that many runs in one go. Thank goodness the genocide timelines were spaced out between a series of neutrals and pacifists. ****same here.****

 ** **That said earlier, was that a pun on my name?**** What? Sans scrolled back up through the messages, and laughed. He never even noticed when he sent it. ****yeah. i never even was aware of it, kid. puns come naturally, like breathing.****

 ** **You're a skeleton, Sans. You don't have any lungs. Wait. How… do you even breath? Or eat, by the way. I mean, you're all bones.****

 ** **mmmmaaaaaaagic~****

 ** **That's… probably the answer, actually. I don't even wanna know how that works, do I?****

 ** **nope. ;)****

 ** **So we're doing emojis now?****

 ** **maybe? ;)****

 ** **Alright, Sans.**** She was laughing again. The wingdings were going across the screen with pauses in between. ****Wanna know about my life?****

 ** **sure kid.**** May as well. If they're gonna be chatting like this for a while, he should probably have some understanding of what was happening on her end when she wasn't chatting with him.

 ** **I'm in grade 12 in high school, just close to graduating and moving out on my own. I'm an only child, so I don't really know what it's like having a younger or older sibling. It's just me and my mom.****

 ** **you and your mom? what about your dad? unless i'm missing something in how you humans have children.****

 ** **No, you're right. It's just…****

 _ _oops. sore subject.__ ****sorry pal. didn't know i was treading on rough ground.****

 ** **It's alright. Can we please switch topics?**** His relationship with Gaster wasn't perfect, but he loved him. Why else would he be trying so hard to bring him back? But, when he compared that to Hope, he could tell that the subject was much more sensitive. The old scientist may have been too involved with his studies, but he spent as much time as he could with him and Papyrus growing up. It didn't sound like her dad had died, unless he was reading it wrong. But whatever it was, it didn't sound good.

But what else could ask? Sans leaned against the chair, and looked over at the clock. They had been at this for almost three hours. __one more question. then we'll have a small break.__ ** **alright hope. here's one i really wanna know: was the game any fun? you know that we're real, and that obviously changes your opinion, but did you like playing it?****

The screen remained silent, and Sans worried that he might have scared Hope away. She wasn't still upset about his stupid tantrum from last night, right? He thought they'd moved past that. __c'mon, hope. don't leave me hanging.__ He leaned around the hulking machinery, checking to see if the plugs were still attached to the wall. They were, so… why didn't she want to respond? "please, kiddo. come on back now." __maybe she's just taking her time in coming up with a reply?__

 ** **Sans.**** He bolted upright, and returned to a comfortable sitting position. ****I would be lying to myself, and to you, if I said that I didn't enjoying playing the game. Your stories, your friendships, your freedom. Everything you, the kid, and all the other monsters went through, I loved playing because I got to experience it with you. I may not know how you truly felt when Frisk murdered your friends. Undyne, Alphys, Toriel… Papyrus. But when I played the pacifist run, I really felt myself interacting with you guys. I laughed when you laughed, cried when you cried, and shared all the same emotions you went through when Frisk broke the barrier.****

 ** **All I want to do is help, Sans. Creating problems is something I don't like to do, I hate it. Understand that, whatever you may think of me, I only did what I did to save you and everyone else.****

Sans reread the message once, twice, and a third time. How could he have ever thought that this human, this human who had stumbled across his signal by pure chance, would be so willing as to help them all? She had something that most anomalies, most players just like herself would kill for a chance to access the world they only knew through a game. Hope… she was only using this strange connection between their worlds to protect them, and stop their continuous effort in stopping the timeline from repeating itself.

"you are something else, kiddo." Sans grinned fondly at the screen, and patted the side of the machine. "out of all the anomalies i could've found, i'm glad it's you i got into contact with." ****thanks, pal. you, uh, really worried me there for a sec. but tibia honest here, i'm glad you're the anomaly i found.**** Yeah, he really needed new material. That pun was wearing thin.

 ** **Thanks Sans. That means a lot coming from you.****

 ** **you're welcome, hope. say, how 'bout we take a short break for now. let us think over what we talked about for a few minutes, and then come back in say, an hour or so?****

 ** **Good idea, Sans. I'll be waiting for you then. It's not like I have anything better to do than chatting it up with Pun Master Sans.****

 ** **hehehe. see you in a bit then.**** He shut down the monitor, and the humming slowed down before coming to a halt. Pushing back from the machine, Sans hopped off the wheeled chair, and stretched his back. "welp, time to go to grillby's for lunch." __i wouldn't call my chat with frisk there lunch, since i never actually ate anything other than ketchup.__

Sans walked back towards the stairway, before coming to a halt. Shoving his hands in his hoodie's pockets, he gave one last look back at the room, and at the sole communication between him and Hope. "see you soon, kid," and vanished from the room.

* * *

 ** **Done!****

 ** **If anyone has any questions you might want Hope or Sans to ask each other, before they get into the important stuff like how they're talking to each other, feel free to let me know.****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	5. HOPEtrousle

****Disclaimer: Honestly, this title made me laugh for a few minutes when I came up with it. Figured it'd be perfect to introduce our other favorite skeleton.****

 ** **Pika5490: Thanks! Heartfelt moments are always a pleasure to write.****

 ** **artfully: Why, thank you! I'll gladly use that question in the next chapter, seeing that I already got a plan for this one here.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Bonding is always beautiful. But there has to be a few tears in order to get past everything in the previous timelines.****

 ** **kat151820: Thank you! I like your question, and it gave me a good idea for this chapter that I was already working on.****

 ** **I will still take question requests, but in a few chapters we're gonna dive into the plot line of this story. After all, while the joining of the two dimensions allows for Sans to go without resets, we still need to figure out HOW Hope received the signal. Plus, I have a few other ideas after we solve that dilemma.****

 ** **I own Hope.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Sept. 4/18****

* * *

"Alright then." Hope skipped back upstairs to her bedroom, and flipped open the laptop. After bidding Sans goodbye, she had went to find some lunch, having spent the entire morning chatting with the skeleton. _Who knew one could dive that deep into a conversation. I didn't even notice time passed that quickly._ One large orange juice and a BLT sandwich later, she was ready to continue their conversation.

"I wonder what he wishes to talk about this time," Hope murmured, wondering aloud. "We can only go so far before talking about the glitch and the void." But Hope suspected that there was still plenty they could discuss, even if she couldn't think of anything off the top of her head right now. She didn't get to hear too much about Papyrus last time, so maybe they could continue that? Or the theories of the resets and how their worlds interacted? Logging back into her email, she sent off the first message. "The last one would be the better choice."

 ** **Hey Sans! I'm back!****

 ** **HELLO STRANGE PERSON!**** Okay, that was ****not**** Sans. Hope leaned back from the computer in surprise. The large papyrus font screamed back at her, and she suddenly realized that she wasn't talking to Comic Sans anymore. ****ARE YOU THE MYSTERIOUS PERSON MY BROTHER HAS BEEN TALKING TOO?****

 ** **Um… perhaps? Are you Papyrus?****

 ** **WHY YES! I'M THRILLED THAT YOU KNOW MY NAME! WHAT IS YOURS?****

 ** **Hope. I've been chatting with Sans for a while now.**** How on earth was he talking to her? Sans had told her that he was using the machine in his secret lab to send her the messages. So… what was happening right now? __Sans, did you even remember to lock the door before you left?__

 ** **IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU, HOPE! MAY I ASK WHY SANS IS TALKING TO YOU? HE'S BEEN… ACTING WEIRD LATELY, AND I BELIEVE YOU MAY BE THE REASON FOR IT.****

 ** **He's been acting weird? Then… maybe, yeah. He and I have been chatting about a lot of stuff.****

 ** **IT IS NOTHING TOO TERRIBLE, HOPE. BUT HE HAD BEEN GETTING LESS SLEEP THAN USUAL.****

 ** **Really?**** Sans had been getting little sleep? And he… was like this even before they met? __Is this because of all the past timelines?__ Hope pondered, putting a hand to her chin in thought. __The game did show lines under his sockets, almost like an equivalent to a human's bags under their eyes.__ It was no shock to the young adult. It seemed like Sans was a perso-err… monster, who struggled with something akin to PTSD. Murdering Frisk who knows how many times, seeing Papyrus beheaded by said child… that and having all of his friends killed too would drive anyone to despair.

"Oh, Sans," Hope sighed. "You have been in pain for a long time, haven't you?" ****Papyrus, where is Sans right now? I really need to speak with him about something.**** ** **And, on another note, how did you even get to the machine in the basement?****

 ** **HE WENT TO NEW-GRILLBY'S, HOPE. THOUGH, I THINK HE'S ON HIS WAY HOME RIGHT NOW.**** ** **AS FOR YOUR OTHER QUESTION, I USED THE SPARE KEY, OF COURSE!**** ** **BUT UNTIL THEN, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TALK ABOUT?****

 ** **Oh! Well…**** "I don't have any ideas," Hope said, frowning. Spare key, That shouldn't have been surprising. It was a basement, after all. Even though Sans was the only one who used it, there had to have been a key in case his was lost. "I have more questions for Sans than him. But maybe… there is one thing I could ask." ****There is one thing I would like to ask you, Papyrus.****

 ** **AND WHAT IS THAT, HOPE?****

 ** **Do you… sometimes feel like you know the human? Like you know Frisk?**** Sans and her knew that he was somewhat aware of the resets, and could remember Frisk in a case of deja vu. So, perhaps having his opinion on the matter might clear some things up on her side. _Not just him either. Doesn't Toriel react in a similar manner when asking pie preferences?_

 ** **WHY, YES HUMAN!**** He sounded amazed that she knew, but didn't seem to go further into asking. ****IT IS… ODD, BUT… I D**** ** **O**** ** **FEEL LIKE I HAD MET FRISK ONCE BEFORE, WHEN WE FIRST MET. THEY NEVER GAVE ME AN ANSWER THOUGH. HOWEVER, THEY DID SEEM VERY SAD WHENEVER I ASKED THEM.****

Of course Frisk would be sad. If you were being manipulated into killing such an innocent cinnamon roll, you'd be a crying mess too. _The deja vu only existed when he first met them though. How sad, when he had probably met them dozens of times already._ ****Well, I am certain that they had a reason for their reaction, Papyrus. Just give them time, I'm sure they'll talk about it eventually.****

 ** **THANK YOU, HOPE! YOU SEEM TO KNOW A LOT ABOUT ME AND MY FRIENDS. DID SANS TELL YOU ABOUT THEM?****

 ** **You can say that. Sans isn't gonna be upset that you went into his lab without his permission, is he?****

 ** **DO NOT FRET, DEAR COMPUTER-PERSON!**** Hope laughed at the silly nickname. Papyrus, when playing the game, had always managed to put her in a good mood. It was physically impossible to dislike the taller skeleton. She had to admit though, he was a pretty good boss battle too. She kept running out of healing items and passing out, having him take her back to the shed where Frisk would wake up.

Nowhere near as difficult as Undyne however. She won't lie in the fact she had screamed at her computer and repeatedly smashed her keys in, trying to escape the mad capt-"no. Stop that, Hope," she frowned, glaring back at her brightly lit screen. As fast as she could, she quickly shot down her thoughts around the battles. Last time, the feeling of guilt had swept in, but that was when she was still trying to piece it all together. Now, what was her excuse? "They're not game characters, and it's not a game. Stop thinking that way."

 ** **I JUST BORROWED THE**** ** **KEY**** ** **FROM QUEEN TORIEL,**** ** **AND WENT TO MAKE SURE HE DID NOT FALL ASLEEP DOWN THERE AGAIN**** ** **. WHILE THE ROOM DOES BELONG TO HIM, WE INSISTED ON HAVING A SPARE MADE JUST IN CASE. I JUST HOPE HE DOESN'T GET UPSET WITH THE IDEA OF HAVING SOMEONE ELSE COME DOWN HERE…****

 ** **I'm sure he won't mind, Papyrus. What's the worst that can happen?****

 ** **GOOD POIKABJSFAF****

"What the…?" Hope blinked at the scattered letters in confusion. "Papyrus?" ****Hey, is everything alright?****

 ** **BIBABFBbfisbfbsfbBBFPWbcbsg****

A mixture of papyrus and comic sans filled her screen, and she could only take a whack at the idea that Sans had finally come home, finding his brother on the machine. "Ooh boy. Sans is not happy," Hope sighed. "Um, guys?" ****Sans? Papyrus? Are either of you still there?****

 ** **hey kiddo.**** Sans finally replied, making her relax into the seat in relief. ****sorry about that. i forgot about the fact we had a spare key to the lab. guess that's what i get for building it in a shared house, i guess.****

 ** **SANS! IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. I SHOULD HAVE REMEMBERED YOU LIKED YOUR SPACE.****

 ** **He has a point, Sans.**** Hope joined in. From the looks of it, the two skele-bros were sharing the machine to talk to her. __That's sweet.__ ** **You do tend to keep to yourself. By the sound of it, you locked the door to protect this machine, right? It's only fair that you would**** ** **tell someone about me besides Frisk soon.****

 ** **YOU TOLD FRISK ABOUT HOPE, SANS?****

 ** **uh… yeah. i did. sorry, paps. it's, um, personal bizz.****

 ** **OH.****

 ** **ALRIGHT, SANS! I RESPECT YOUR DECISION. BUT, CAN I STILL TALK TO HOPE?****

 ** **hehehe. sure bro. whatever tickles your funny bone.****

 ** **OH MY GOD, SANS! NO!****

 ** **What's the matter, Papyrus? I thought it was pretty humerous.****

 ** **NOT YOU TOO, HOPE!****

The laptop remained silent for a moment, probably because the two were arguing about puns. Hope grinned, pleased at her teasing with the younger skeleton. "Hehe. I wonder what it's like, having a sibling like that." It was a lonely thing sometimes, being an only child, but she was fine with it. After all, the quiet around the house made it easier to relax. ****Hey, guys?****

 ** **yeah?****

 ** **YES, HOPE?****

 ** **Can I just talk to Sans now? Sorry Papyrus, but I'd like to talk more about… things.****

 ** **OF COURSE! FAREWELL, HOPE. I HOPE WE GET TO TALK AGAIN LATER.****

 ** **Same here, Papyrus!**** She paused for a few seconds, giving him enough time to leave the room. ****Is he gone?****

 ** **yep. it's just us now. sorry 'bout all that. i didn't except him to come down here and figure out how to turn on the machine.****

 ** **It's not your fault, Sans. It was really nice to talk to him though. Papyrus made my day with our small chat.****

 ** **that's nice. but aren't i enough conversation for you? you wound me, kid.****

 ** **Yeah, yeah. Way to rub salt in my imaginary scratches. Um, Sans?****

 ** **yeah, kid?****

 ** **What are the others like?****

 ** **others?****

 ** **Uh-huh. Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, Toriel, and Asgore.****

Sans stopped for a total of 5 minutes. Hope counted, continuously checking the clock. __I did ask a somewhat personal question,__ she shrugged. __I don't blame 'em for taking his time in coming up with an answer.__

 ** **i'm back.**** The page refreshed itself, and her eyes were drawn back to his response. ****my opinion, huh? well… i'll start at the beginning. i knew asgore first. he was the one who employed my d**** the screen paused, and Hope watched the 'd' vanish for a moment. "What was that?" ****my boss, w.d. gaster. asgore was a nice ruler, although his plan for all the children who fell down there… i'm sorry, hope. i… i didn't want to hurt them.****

 ** **Sans? You-did you…**** _ _no. He-he didn't actually mean that he… did he?__ **…** ** **kill them?****

 ** **i was there when three of the six humans, minus chara and frisk, fell into the underground. i never took their souls, hope. but… at least i would've shown more mercy than asgore or undyne,**** ** **once she was old enough to join the guard**** ** **. the children that had fallen… they were all very different in personality, but none of them were murderers.****

 ** **guiding them along just as i did with the kid, when i should've been smart and kept them safe.**** Sans stopped for a moment, before writing a new line. ****hope,**** ****answer me this.****

 ** **Yeah, Sans?**** Hope bit her lip anxiously.

 ** **do you think even the worst person can change? that everyone can be a good person, if they just try?****

"Oh my..." Hope blanked, gaping at the screen. That was the exact same question Sans had asked Frisk/Chara/the player before the genocide battle. He no longer seemed to hate her, so then… was he hinting at himself? _He feels bad about the truth. That he… killed Frisk, even though they didn't mean to murder everyone._

"Sans," she shook her head sadly, reaching back to the keyboard. ****Yes, Sans. I fully believe that everyone can be a good person.**** ** **But in order to be so, they have to try. They have to try really hard, since being an overall good person is a very difficult thing to achieve. Everyone makes mistakes, after all.**** ** **Example. You thought that all anomalies were horrible and just wanted to play with your lives for their own sick enjoyment. But I helped prove that wrong, huh?****

 ** **hehe. yeah. yeah, you did, kid. so, as for the other monsters…****

 ** **alphys was the second one i met, after gaster had fallen into the core by accident. she was… awkward, to say the least. she was his assistant, same as me. but when he fell in, the timeline reset itself so that she was the royal scientist.**** ** **i left hotland not long after that. couldn't really force myself to keep working.****

 ** **She was the one who made the amalgamates and Flowey.**** Hope added, remembering back to her how nervous she had felt in the dark creepy lab. __Honestly, it was like some sort of messed up creepypasta down there.__

 ** **how did-oh. right, the game.**** She slapped a hand to her head, realizing how fast she had typed that out without probably thinking. "Too rushed, Hope. Way too rushed." ****alphys did mean well, she just… didn't always do well. take mettaton for example. she was being a good person for making him a corporeal body, but the fame went to his tin head. you must've saw the continuous attempts he made on frisk's life to get their soul.****

 ** **He did however give some light to the populace's dark life, though. He also realized his errors in the end, and went to make up with Napstablook.****

 ** **true. i just hate it how paps sometimes calls him a 'sexy rectangle'.****

"Pfffft! Ha ha ha! Sexy rectangle!" Hope laughed loudly, holding a hand to her mouth to try and contain it. The fact the skeleton had just put the words 'sexy' and 'papyrus' in the same sentence was enough to make her lose it. "Oh man! That… that was a good one." Taking a couple shaky breathes to calm herself down, she reached back to the laptop.

 ** **I can imagine why. What about Undyne, Sans?****

 ** **the woman screams testosterone despite being a girl, and believes anime is real. do i really need to say anything else?****

 ** **Just that somehow you got a job from her**** ** **as a sentry**** ** **, despite being always asleep at your stations and running an illegal hot dog stand. Also, she has a relationship with Alphys and had their first kiss ruined by Toriel.****

 ** **hehe. toriel. she really wanted what was best for the kid.**** There was a certain fondness behind the sentence she could detect. Thinking back, Hope could recall that he and the old queen had a hidden friendship that was only separated by the door to the Ruins. ****i knew her for about as long as i've lived in snowdin. she was the one responsible for me watching over those three humans i previously mentioned. without her, i probably would've just left them alone and let their souls be taken. hey, i thought, the more souls gathered, the quicker we could get out of the underground.****

 ** **oh, how wrong i was, hope. it killed me to watch them get impaled, roasted, and fall to their deaths, so i strove to keep frisk alive. you can understand how hard that was when you've got different typed of players; neutral players, genocide**** ** **runners, and pacifists.****

Hope nodded in understanding, despite knowing he was unable to see her. __No wonder he had given up in the genocide runs. He's really been through a lot these past years.__ ** **Yeah, I understand. It explains a few things from your speech when you tried to snap Frisk out of it.****

 ** **glad you figured that out, kid.****

 ** **It wasn't too hard. Sans, since it's getting late, can I ask one more thing before I go?****

 ** **uh, sure kid. what is it?****

 ** **I told you**** Hope paused for a moment, thinking back to earlier that morning. She didn't blame Sans for being curious about her father. But it was somewhat of a touchy subject for her, something she really didn't like to think about that much. She tried, a lot, to keep that hidden from people she didn't know very well, and while Sans was on his way to being a good friend, she wasn't ready to say anything else. ****earlier about my family, and can…**** ** **can**** ** **i ask**** ** **about**** ** **yours?**** She didn't have to add the dots in, to make it seem like she was hesitant, but it would help show her uncertainty in the topic should he say no.

 ** **my family?****

 ** **I know about Papyrus, but don't you have a mom or dad?**** The screen remained silent, and Hope leaned back in her seat patiently. __Now, we wait.__

She never questioned the idea that Sans would respond right away. The question was definitely a more serious one, contrary to how simple it was. Undertale focused solely on the skeleton brothers, and the idea of them having parents was never discussed once. The fandom did make accusations that the old scientist, W.D. Gaster, was their father. Or brother. Or some weird fusion between the two. Err… the people who came up with that idea have problems.

 ** **hope, don't you think that's a bit of a personal thing to ask?****

 ** **Maybe.**** ** **I might be coming off a little strong here. I was just wondering if there was anyone else besides Papyrus.****

 ** **kid,**** ** **listen for a moment, okay? i don't remember my mom. i know paps and me must've had one, in order to be here, y'know? but she was gone when i was really young, so i don't recall her that well.****

 ** **and**** ** **remember how you mentioned earlier about how talking about your father was a touchy subject?****

 ** **Sorry, Sans. I had no idea**** ** **.**** How was she to know that they both didn't like speaking about their fathers? Sans didn't seem to clam up the way she did, but she could see the avoidance in the text of the email. How he was trying to not speak about it, and keep any other reply as vague as possible.

 ** **perhaps we'll be more open in the future, kid. but i think we've talked enough for the day. will you be around tomorrow at all?****

 ** **Yeah. Tomorrow is the start of the weekend, so I'll be around.**** She stopped typing, smiling at the laptop for a moment. _Ah, long weekends are the best._ She didn't have much planned. Maybe working on some review for finals, and going out shopping that that dress for prom. But… since some of her review had revolved around her laptop… a light bulb went off in her head. It was a foolish idea, but… if he was able to build a device that could connect their dimensions, then maybe, just maybe… ****Sans, is it possible that you could hack into the sound system and camera on my laptop?****

 ** **you want me to hack into your computer? um… i think i can.**** ** **b**** ** **ut why**** ** **would you want me to do that**** ** **?****

 ** **While talking to you like this is pretty cool, actually being able to hear and see you would make things a lot**** ** **easier**** ** **. Plus, talking face-to-face might help us generate some idea of how I got the code that brought me to hooking up with your machine.**** ** **We have an understanding of how our dimensions are connected, but we need to look more into how that works.****

 ** **hmmm…****

 ** **Well?****

 ** **it does have merit, hope.**** ** **not a bad idea.**** ** **i'll experiment for a while before i come online tomorrow, and maybe i can configure something out on my end to allow us to talk better.****

 ** **Great! Goodbye, Sans!****

 ** **see ya, kiddo.**** The last line appeared, and Hope took that as her cue to log out of her email. Grinning wildly as she closed the tab and opened up to her typed notes, she turned to face her clock. "Until tomorrow Sans."

* * *

 ** **Yeah, it's not a very long chapter. (Shrugs) I'm still proud of how it turned out.****

 ** **Question: what would you suspect Hope's reaction would be to actually seeing/hearing Sans? Screaming? Passing out? I'd like some say in what I should do!****

 ** **Also, I have no idea if fonts are capitalized or not. I don't think it matters that much. So they're all lowercase for convenience.****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	6. HOPE Meets Sans

****Disclaimer: You asked for it, you're getting it. A squealing, twitchy, falling out of chair reaction! Frankly, that would be anyone's reaction. Also, how is it that a story that's only on chapter 6, has almost as many reviews as my old Undertale story? The fact it's getting attention makes me happy, and I guess I chose a great topic, huh.****

 ** **Pika5490: Real life Sans. The idea itself would freak anybody out.****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: A small squeal and falling is definitely what she'd do.****

 ** **MajorKO: Thanks!****

 ** **musicalocelot: Passing out would be a little much, but the eye twitch is a great idea. Glad you liked Papyrus' bit. I felt it was time to introduce some other characters.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Nice rant, pal. Honestly, I can see where you're coming from. Sans had made a lot of mistakes in the past, and if my story isn't being clear enough, it's showing that he felt horrible about what he was doing. But I guess everyone has their own opinion on the backstory.****

 ** **artfully: True, but even though her soul may be green, anyone would freak out if they met Sans face to face.****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Sorry about that. I didn't have time to post on Deviantart yesterday. If we're thinking about a typical human… passing out or screaming is most likely.****

 ** **kat151820: Yeah, passing out is a little much. Screaming on the other hand, is a fairly ideal reaction.****

 ** **AGirl: Why thank you! I've never played Undertale either, to be honest. All the stuff I know came from watching playthroughs on YouTube and reading other writer's stories. I might download it one day though…****

 ** **By the way, I have a huge amount I had wanted to get done in this chapter, but time ran away from me. So unfortunately, this chapter's a little on the short side. I promise that next week's will be much longer.****

 ** **I own Hope.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Sept. 7/18****

* * *

 _ _There we go. All set up.__ Hope grinned to herself, staring at her desk. Her laptop was opened to her email account, but unlike the last few times, she had hooked up a few speakers to the machine, along with an open Skype tab. __Just in case…__

 _ _I don't know if it's a possibility, but if Sans can connect to my laptop from his dimension…__ then asking questions and figuring out the reason for why she was in contact with him in the first place would become a lot easier. "But first, let's see if he's even online." Hope sat down in her chair, and cracked her knuckles. ****Morning Sans! You there?**** Wait. Was it morning? ** **Uh… I mean afternoon.****

 ** **mornin' here kiddo. nice try. couldn't wait, could you?****

 ** **Couldn't wait? Sans, you saying you sleep in on a regular basis?**** If their time zones were close enough, then he should either be a little ahead or a little behind her. Either way, he should have been awake. __Or was he working at an early hour to get this to work?__

 ** **maybe? ;)****

And there's the emojis again. Hope laughed, and pushed herself closer to the screen. ****So, did you work on the machine since last night?****

 ** **yeah. it wasn't easy, hope. but after tinkering with the original signal, i amplified the broadcast, so that more than our words will go across the void. i also had to hook up a speaker and camera on my end so i can actually see ya.****

 ** **So, we're doing a Skype chat, basically.****

 ** **hehehe. yeah, kid. we're doing an interdimensional skype chat. so then, are you ready?****

 ** **Start it up, bone boy!**** Hope grinned. ****Let's do this thing!****

As soon as she said that sentence, her laptop shut down. "Wha-really, Sans? Really?" __Please tell me he didn't break my computer.__ Raising a brow, she leaned even closer to the screen so she was inches from the glass, only for the painfully familiar screeching to come flooding out of her computer and speakers tenfold. "AAHHH!" Hope slapped her hands over her ears, wincing under the pain of the harsh sound.

The shrieking soon died down, along with her hearing. "Great. Just great," she mumbled. __I won't hear straight for a while now.__ The humming of the machine returned, and Hope watched the windows return. To her confusion, she saw another tab open behind the search bar. __Is that…?__ Hope quickly grasped her mouse and clicked the tab, filling the screen with a blank black screen. The exit button, and all the other links were still there, but there was no indication as to what she was staring at.

"S-Sans?" She whispered. A shuffling noise came from her setup, and she watched as the lightning started to brighten and darken. __Why is everything now all… blue?__

"err… welp, that hurt." A deep rumbling voice echoed through the speakers. Despite the slight mute on her older equipment, it was clearly a male she was hearing. "um… give me a sec." A clicking sound came from the laptop and the sound system, and the screen's brightness increased. "there we go." Time seemed to slow down, as Hope watched in confusion at the dark blue that was pressed up to the camera on the other end begin to move away, letting the background of the lab come into full view. __Is that…?__ The blue fully backed away, and her eyes widened in disbelief at two things.

One was that it took her that long to realize it was his hoodie she was seeing, as he was trying to fix his camera. The second?

"looks like it worked, huh kid." The short skeleton smirked at her, his pupils dancing in amusement. "so, i take it you're surprised?"

The second was that he… he did it. He got through the barrier between them so that they could speak face to face. "Ah… ah… ah…" Hope blinked, mouth closing and opening like a fish as she tried to rework her brain. __It's him. It's… it's Sans.__

…

"uh, kid?" Sans leaned his skull in his hand, elbow propped up on the counter and watching her in concern. "you alright there?"

 _ _Three, two, one.__ "SWEET CORN!" Hope shrieked, and jumped back in her desk chair. "Whoa, wah!" Flailing her arms, she fell out of her chair, landing roughly on the floor in a heap. "Mmm…" __great. Wonderful first impression there. Screaming about corn and falling like a loon. Perfect!__

Sans leaned closer to the camera, and watched a hand grip the desk on the other side. "you okay, hope?" Said teen slowly brought herself up off the floor, dragging her chair back over to her.

"I, uh…" Hope laughed uneasily, and sat back down. "I-I don't really know. I mean, uh, you-you're… real. I-I knew, that this was really happening, but to ****actually**** be talking to you face to face. It's pretty…"

"strange?" Sans supplied. Chucking, he gave a small nod. "yeah, i guess if i were in your footsteps, i'd be freaking out too. but hey! look at it this way. now, we can finally get something accomplished with this chat we have going," he winked. __How is he winking? He doesn't even have eyelids… does he?__

"Yeah, I, uh, guess so." Hope managed a weak grin, feeling her heart slowly return to its normal pace.

And such, the barrier between the two vastly different dimensions was shattered. When compared to the game before, where the player would only see things as bits of data, and the characters never knew any different, that was no longer the case for the skeleton and human. Sans and Hope; a character who wanted to challenge the anomalies who caused him so much pain, and a human who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 _ _Wow. Just… wow.__ "Hehehehe."

"what's ticking your funny bone, kid?" Sans asked. The young woman's first reaction of him surprised and entertained him. Who knew that a player would have that response to seeing him, let alone hearing him. __gee, hope. you sure know how to greet a new friend, don't you?__

"Just, thinking about our little thing we have going on here," Hope laughed. Sans' grin brightened. The human's laugh was infectious, and something told him she did that a lot when they were making puns earlier. "So tell me, Legendary Fartmaster, what do you want to talk about today?"

"whatever you want to talk about, kid," Sans shrugged. Hope could make out the bones in his shoulders rotate with the simple movement, and the almost silent clicking that followed afterwards. How peculiar. He did greatly resemble the sprite that she had grown to care for on the screen, but at the same time… there were so many differences.

The rich dark blue hoodie fell around his skeletal structure just loosely enough as to not get caught in his joints, with thick white fur around the collar. Its strands would almost brush up against the smooth bone of his skull. She could not make out much else except the t-shirt underneath the open hoodie with faded ketchup stains around the collar. Judging from that, it must have been well-loved.

His skull. That was what kept Hope from observing the rest of what the camera had to offer her. Just like in her biology textbooks, she could make out all the similar bones, except… they all seemed to be fused together. __Huh?__ There was a rough texture to it, as it wasn't entirely smooth, but it was all still one solid piece. __Except… what do I make of his jaw?__ Whatever. She would try to figure that one out later.

"what'cha lookin' at, hope?" Sans spoke, drawing Hope's attention back.

"Um, well, I was just trying to figure out…" a light red dusted her cheeks. "How your… skeletal structure worked." Sans' sockets increased, if that was even possible, and he made a small choking sound. __Did I say something wrong?__ "Are you okay?"

"i'm, err… fine, kid. just, uh…" Hope wasn't sure if it was the lighting in their rooms, or the camera's fault, but a light blue hue had spread across his face. __Is he… blushing?__ Who knew skeletons could blush? "talking about bones and stuff like that to a skeleton monster, it's a little… y'know."

"Oh. OH." Hope rubbed the back of her neck, and glanced away from the computer. Thank goodness he was phrasing it like that, instead of stating the clear message. "S-sorry, about that Sans. I, uh, oh gosh." She buried her head in her hands, sighing. "That was not what I meant to say at all."

"i know, kiddo. hehehe." Sans laughed along, and focused on the unusual human before him. Her hair was a mess, sticking together in small spikes at the bottom. Like she had mentioned the previous day, she wore a gray outfit, which made her dark brown shoulder length hair stand out. __simple, just like frisk.__ Did all humans stick to a theme in their clothing? The basic clothes did suit her, although he wondered why she didn't go for something more bright.

"but as for your wondering, you see hope, i may resemble human skeletons, but i'm not like them in the slightest. my head does look a bit like yours does, but all of the bone is connected together. no muscle, gaps, or anything like that here." Sans pointed to his mouth, chuckling to himself. "this has no bones to allow it to open. the only way it can is if i use my magic to open it myself." __So he does have a jaw.__

"So, you use your magic for things like… that?" Hope asked. The idea of him not always using his power for battle seemed more appropriate. Things like picking up random objects or something like that.

"sometimes. it all depends," he shrugged. "maybe i'll show you one day."

The clock in both rooms ticked by, and the two sat in silence. It was comforting though, as both didn't mind the lack of conversation. They were just happy, to finally have someone to talk to. Sans coughed, and Hope perked up. "say, kid. do you know if, um, there's other dimensions out there?"

"You mean, like, other games that are in the same scenario as yours?" Hope put a finger to her chin in thought. "Not that I'm aware of, Sans. Hmmm… I don't think the alternate universes follow the same rules as yours does."

"alternate universes?" Sans repeated in confusion. "what about them?"

 _ _Oh dear, this is going to be an interesting conversation.__ "You see Sans, Undertale's a very popular game, and with that comes other interpretations of certain events. Changing things like personalities, adding new characters to fit entirely new versions of the Underground. It's amazing what the fan base can come up with," she explained.

"you seem to know a lot about them," Sans noted. __i wonder… if they're-no. like the kid said, they're just ideas that other players came up with. they're not real.__ He paused, and laughed bitterly. __so this is what hope had felt when she contacted me the first time.__ "what alternate universe are you most familiar with?"

"Me?" Hope closed her eyes in though. She doubted they existed too. It was a miracle Sans' world even existed. Any more, and she wouldn't know what to do. "One of the most popular AU's is Underswap, which has all of the character's personalities swapped. For example, Asgore and Toriel switch places, along with Undyne and Alphys, and you and Papyrus."

"so, i become pap?" Sans said slowly, before shaking his head. "i love my bro, but the idea of being like him… i could never handle that."

"I can see that," Hope agreed. The idea seemed to bother him a little, so she continued on. Of course, not before leaving him with one piece of information from that universe. "But I will admit, the Magnificent Sans is really adorable." She laughed, as the short skeleton's face turned blue once again. __So it is a blush!__

"i call myself that?" He groaned, and pinched the bone part where his nose would have been."what else?"

"Well, there's Underfell. That's where the entire Underground is run by the whole 'kill or be killed' philosophy. Everyone is always mean towards each other, and people kill each other over the simplest of things. The Frisk in that universe, despite how much pain they've been put through, always goes through a pacifist run." Hope mumbled under her breathe, "what else was there? What else is there? Oh!" Her face brightened. "While everyone is like that, the only merciful monster is Flowey. He helps Frisk along through their journey."

"f-flowey!?" He couldn't believe his non-existent ears. The psycho dandelion was the merciful monster? That was… that was…

"And… I broke him," Hope deadpanned. Sans' sockets had blackened out, and he seemed to stare off into space with sweat on his forehead. It looked like that one line seemed to stun him, and she quickly leaned closer to try and gain his attention again. "Oh boy. Um… you okay, Sans?"

"yeah… i'm… fine," he said slowly. Sans shook his skull, drawing his attention back to Hope as his pupils returned. "um… do you have any other au's?" __preferably ones that make sense.__

"There's lots more, Sans." Hope held up her hand, and started counting off her fingers. "Horrortale, Grouptale, Kidtale, Flowerfell..." a small frown crossed her face. "That one made me bawl for hours. It's like Underfell, except Frisk was cursed when they fell. Every time they they died and reloaded, a new buttercup grew on their body. Despite that version of Sans' help, the child died at the end, willingly using their soul to free everyone after they learned about love. ****Real**** love."

"hmmm…" Sans hummed in thought. "might want to look into that one day, kid. who knows, maybe there's a dimension where all of those exist too." It might be possible. If his world was a video game in hers, then maybe a fan made version existed too. Though, he wasn't sure if he'd like the Underfell and Flowerfell ones to be real. If having to put up with forced genocide runs hurt him, having to meet an alternate version of himself who ****enjoyed**** brutally killing Frisk… he would never be able to live with himself afterwards.

"Sans." He snapped out of his thoughts, and looked at the girl's worried face. Was this her reaction every time he expressed some form of guilt or sorrow? __kid. i don't need your pity.__ But it… felt nice, to have someone who fully understood what he was going through. "Do you want to end the chat now? I'm a little…" worried? Scared? "… concerned, that this chat is getting a little too much for you. Would you like to call it a day, for you to… reevaluate what we discussed? It's also getting a little late on my end." It was. The clock showed it was getting close to around supper, and she wanted to hurry and get that ready for when her mom came home.

"um, yeah. yeah, i think that, uh, might be best." Sans ran his fingers across his skull, making an odd scratching sound. __Bone against bone. That's… a little cringy.__ Hope shuddered at the uncomfortable noise, feeling the small hairs on her neck stand on end. "i just need to… think some things over." He reached forward above the camera to turn it off.

"W-wait, Sans!"

Freezing, the short skeleton leaned back, and gazed at Hope in confusion. Why did she cut him off? "what is it, kid?"

"Sans…" she took a deep breath. "Do you think… we can discuss…" __you can do this, Hope. Nothing will be accomplished through this conversation if you don't step out of your comfort zone. You… you ask him. Sans… he won't judge you. He-he won't.__ "Can we discuss the code next time?" The monster's entire body tensed in surprise. __she's already set on that discussion?__

It shocked him, that Hope was ready to talk about how the workings of the game already. In just a few days, she had gone from a nervous wreck to being somewhat comfortable around him. Yet… was she actually going to discuss how she received the signal he sent out, or… was she going to ask why he was sending out the signal in the first place? __oh, i hope not that last one.__ "um…" Sans sighed deeply. __welp, it's not like things are gonna get any worse from here on out.__ "okay, hope. next time, we'll talk 'bout the code."

Hope smiled, and reached forward. She placed her hand on the computer screen, her fingers spread apart. Sans glanced from her face to the hand, before chuckling in understanding. He rolled his chair closer, and put his own bony hand on the monitor. Hope's thin pale hand was slightly larger than the skeletal one on the other side, despite Sans' thicker bones.

"Hehehe. Cool," Hope said, giggling. She turned back to Sans, who was watching their hands curiously. How, even though their was a strange void of darkness and unknown code between them, it seemed as if he was right there with her. "Goodbye, Sans. See you tomorrow." Sans' sockets closed for a few seconds, and he grinned at the human across the screen. __across dimensions,__ he remembered. If it wasn't for his extensive knowledge, and the fact she contacted him through Gaster's device, he never would've thought she was from another dimension.

"heh… goodnight, pal." Sans finally reached up towards the switch, but not before casting one last look at Hope. __thanks kid.__ With a genuine smile, he flicked it off, and both screens plunged back into darkness.

* * *

 ** **Yep, it's short. But I felt the need to have the code discussion and Gaster's bit by itself. I can't write two huge chapters, since my other story is really huge and needs a lot of attention.****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	7. HOPE Meets World

****Disclaimer: So no AU's. Got it. Yeah, it was just an idea if this story ran too fast, but hearing your opinions helped clear that up. Thanks everyone!****

 ** **Pika5490: Don't give me ideas. I will however, say that Gaster DOES play an important part in this story.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: The idea of Sans meeting the Magnificent Sans… fills you with discomfort.****

 ** **kat151820: Gotta agree with you there. The AU thought was just in case this story ran too quickly. But besides that, thanks for the review!****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Sorry. I ran out of time to post over there. I'll get to it though! Like I said above, the AU thing will not happen. Keep your eyes peeled for Gaster too!****

 ** **AGirl: Just Hope and her mom. No fluffy cats here. But we do have annoying dogs!****

 ** **Andonexus KotD: Nothing popped up, so you're good. I don't blame you, binge-reading is always fun.****

 ** **Sorry for the early update. I have a senior cadet fun night going on, and I won't be back until the following afternoon Saturday. Plus, I got course selections to handle. Anyway, here we go!****

 ** **I only own Hope.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Sept. 8/18****

* * *

 _ _i can't believe i'm doing this,__ Sans thought with a grimace as he walked to the rear of the house, kicking a small rock in his path. __i can't believe they got me to do this.__

He didn't blame Hope entirely, but from what they had discussed yesterday, the idea of how well she and Papyrus had gotten along stuck with him. His younger brother yanked him into his bedroom once he went upstairs, and wouldn't leave him alone until he explained everything. While Papyrus was very much an innocent person, considering what they all had gone through in the Underground, he was by no means stupid. Papyrus could sense something was wrong ever since he had first started working on the machine when Frisk brought them up to the surface. But now… hiding anything from him and the kid was pretty much pointless.

"Well, punk?" Undyne asked behind him, putting her hands on her hips. "What is it you wanted us to see anyway?"

"Yes, Sans," Toriel added. She settled her hand on his shoulder, trying to relax the short skeleton. Sans felt himself ease up lightly, and looked up at the old queen. "What is it that Papyrus and Frisk were so insistent on us seeing?" By us, she had meant herself, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, and Frisk. Asgore did not live with Toriel, and the group had felt it would be best not to involve him in his machine. Especially since it was Asgore who had employed W.D. Gaster in the first place. Who knows what the goat could remember., and if he could recall the machine at all.

He also didn't bring Mettaton along, for… obvious reasons. "welp tori," Sans began. Reaching into his shorts, he pulled out the key and unlocked the basement door. "you and the others know i've been spending plenty of time down here, working on something. well, i figured that now's as good a time as ever for you to see it."

The staircase creaked under the combined weight of the monsters and the small child. Once he reached the bottom, Sans flicked the lights on, and the group let out a small gasp. "S-Sans?" Alphys stuttered, pushing her glasses up in shock. "W-what is that?"

"this is a machine left to me by an… old friend of mine," he hesitantly answered. Walking forward, he sat down in his computer chair, and began booting up the machine. "years ago, he made this to produce a signal that could move throughout the void, searching for any life that existed outside our own world."

"Outside of our dimension," Frisk spoke up. They turned to their young savior in surprise, and the child blushed in embarrassment. "Sans had… talked to me, about this a few days ago." Chuckling, Sans turned back to monitor, grinning as the green screen lit up.

"yep. kid had to be the first to know what it was i came across." Papyrus frowned, and put a hand to his bony chin in thought.

"BUT SANS," he started. "HOW DID YOU COME ACROSS HOPE INSTEAD?"

"Hope?" Toriel repeated in confusion.

"yep. y'see, while i was trying to find… something." He couldn't mention Gaster yet. Hope would be the first person to hear that. Sans was certain that the quirky girl would be more understanding than the others, and if she had any ideas as to how he could improve the machine, she'd tell him. "but for some odd reason, i ended up coming into contact with an anomaly. someone who knew all about the kid's journey in the underground, flowey, everything." Only Frisk knew about the timelines, and that was how it was going to stay. If they felt they were comfortable to tell them about what they had been through, what the reason for their night terrors really was, then they would. All Toriel knew was that the flower had tired to attack them. For her sake, neither he nor Frisk told her the truth about him.

 _ _i won't say anything if you don't want me to, kiddo. i trust your judgment.__ Somewhat. Considering his ability to see the LV and EXP in everyone, his judgment was far more greater than theirs. "the anomaly, or as she called herself, 'Hope', told me that she didn't mean to contact me. she found my signal through a glitch in her dimension, that connected her laptop to my machine." Said device finally finished booting up, and he grinned. Sans adjusted the camera, and began zooming out the lens. She would need the room to see everybody.

"So how did this girl know about us then?" Undyne asked, she marched up to the older skeleton, boots thumping loudly against the tiled floor, and sat an arm on the backrest of the chair.

"because apparently in her world, we're… we're a video game." _n_ _ow or never,_ _s_ _ans._ _n_ _ow or never._ "it turns out that in hope's dimension, we're a video game called 'undertale'. it followed the anomaly, the player, playing as frisk and interacting with us on their journey through the underground."

"You mean… Frisk had been controlled their entire time with us?" Toriel said in horror. She looked down at Frisk, who gave the goat-mom a nervous smile. That was impossible! Alternate realities might have been a possibility, but affecting a world like how he was describing was-that was horrific! And what did that mean to Frisk?

"not exactly, tori." Sans held up a hand to stop her, seeing she was about to go off about the information he had just spilled. "the anomaly was more or less a very strong emotion, pushing them to act a certain way." The kid's reaction at the end of the genocide runs were more than enough proof. Why would they murder ****everyone**** , without any mercy, and have the reaction of tearful sobbing? "there are many versions of the game, all belonging to their respective player. not each player interferes with our dimension though. only one person at a time can affect us. it was hope's turn in playing when i found her. it was her very first time playing undertale, and she were the one to lead us to the surface. however, i'm not sure what she did to message me. all she told me so far was that she was checking out my old lab in snowdin before she left to the surface, and a glitch appeared. that code she found had bridged the gap between her world and ours."

"Y-you've been talking to someone ****across**** the void!?" Alphys said in amazement. That was incredible! In all her years of research, such a scientific feat was amazing! Since when was Sans this smart? Wh-why hadn't she gone to him for advice about the Core before? She rushed up to the machine, looking at it in wonder. "Sans, th-that's unbelievable!"

"heh. thanks, al. anyways, we figured that as long as she and me continue interacting with each other, our dimension won't be affected by the other players. as long as she's here, we're safe." It was a huge load off his shoulders. His friends, while Toriel's reaction was expected, seemed to understand his plight. __now let's see if they'll act nice around her.__ "say, you guys wanna meet hope in person?"

"Yeah!" Frisk cheered. They walked up the machine, and stood beside Alphys. Papyrus and Toriel stood behind him next to Undyne, watching the wingdings flow across the green monitor. They really did want to meet her. If Sans seemed to trust Hope, then that should be enough for them. Still… they were a little nervous. _I hope they like me, and that… they don't feel guilty over everything._

"WHAT ARE THOSE, SANS? THEY SEEM… FAMILIAR." Papyrus squinted at the font, trying to make sense of it.

 _figured it would, pap._ "those are wingdings, pap. the guy who made this used that type of font in his programming. wanted to make it interesting. by the looks of things, she's already online."

 ** **Morning Sans! Let me know when you're online, okay? I'm doing my homework right now, so I might not get right back to you.****

Then wasn't she in for a surprise. With a final flick of a switch, the window opened to reveal a loading camera. The lightning brightened, and the group found themselves staring into Hope's bedroom. Nothing fantastic. A bed in the corner with a dark green bedspread and a single brown pillow, a small bookshelf in the corner lined with textbooks and notes, and a closet at the far end next to the door. The walls themselves were a dark blue, just like the color she had told him. Said teen was curled up on the bed reading from a chemistry textbook. __she doesn't even know we're watching her.__ Chuckling, he reached forward and turned up the volume. "mornin', bud."

"Morning, Sans." Hope still had her head in her book, before whipping around to meet him on the screen. "Sans! Whoa-ah!" Waving her arms, the teen fell forward and off her bed, the book falling beside her. "Aw, come on! Not again!" Groaning, Hope pulled herself up using the bed, and walked over to the laptop. Did he enjoy doing that? Startling her? "I didn't think you'd respond so soo-"

Hope froze, blinking at her computer slowly. Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, and Frisk were watching us in a combination of curiosity and slight anger. Sans sat there in front of them, still grinning at the unnerved girl. __They're… oh Sans. You brought them too?__ She had no faults with the group, but she had a small fear of the guard captain. And Frisk… how was she supposed to feel facing the child she had unknowingly manipulated?

"Uh… h-hi?" She sat down in her chair, body moving at a hesitant pace. "It's uh, nice to meet all of you. I'm Hope."

Toriel gave her a small glare, analyzing the teen before smiling softly. She didn't seem to be terrible. In fact, the girl looked as if she were afraid of them. Perhaps not for their appearance, but for how they were to judge her. "Hello dear. It is very nice to meet you. I am Toriel."

"It is nice to meet you, Toriel," Hope replied. Did she need to bow? Toriel was a queen, so that would be proper protocol. "I understand any initial mistrust you might have. Sans must have told you about… everything, and as Frisk's mother you only want what is best for them."

The goat monster smiled at her, approving her answer. Toriel looked very similar to her sprite character, same as Sans did. A lavender robe with white sleeves and the royal emblem sewn onto the front, soft clean fur that was well brushed, amber eyes that sparkled with a mother and caregiver's love, and floppy goat ears that hung down to her shoulders. Hope looked from her to Undyne and Alphys, and grinned. Alphys wore a clean buttoned white lap coat, with a pair of light brown pants underneath and her shirt hidden under her coat. Her scales were like a lizard's, bending under her muscles. She wore a set of half-mooned glasses, and had two spiked fins were on either side of her head, resembling pigtails. Her tail swished back and forth behind her under the coat, either in nerves or excitement, Hope couldn't quite tell.

Undyne had much more detail than in the game, and was the monster that immediately caught her eyes. She wore a pair of dark blue jeans, torn at the knees from work, a bright red tank top and black combat boots. Her fiery red hair was pulled back in a high pony tail, almost reaching her muscular shoulders. Her skin was a dark blue, but still was lighter than the color of her room, with the same scaly look as Alphys, and her eye patch that covered her right eye had the royal emblem designed on it. Other details were her blazing yellow eyes, large piranha teeth, spiked fins on the sides of her head, and red gills on either side of her neck. _Man… those muscles… she could snap me in half with those._

Papyrus… pretty much looked the same, just as Sans. His height was much more prominent when compared to his older brother, his skeletal structure was easier to see as she took notice of the ridges of his spine under his armor, and unlike Sans, she could see his jaw bones moving. The rest of his skull was fused exactly like the older brother, showing no sign of different sections of the skull.

"HELLO, HOPE!" He beamed, waving at her. "IT IS VERY NICE TO MEET YOU IN PERSON!"

"No need to shout, Papyrus." Laughing, Hope laid her arms against the table in a folded position. "I can hear you just fine. It's nice to meet you all." She directed the last part to Alphys and Undyne. _Please be nice._

"Hmmm…" Undyne frowned, narrowing her eyes at the older human. Without warning, she gripped the chair tightly, and roughly shoved it across the lab. Sans spun in a circle, before hitting the wall, giving a startled cry as he was shoved out of the camera's frame. "So!" Undyne smacked her hands on either side of the control panel, denting it and glared at the older human. Thankfully, she didn't crush the keys. "You were the one to bring us to the surface then?"

"Uh… y-yeah?" Hope answered nervously. "B-but it was Frisk who really did it! I was just g… guiding them along." _Please be nice! Please be nice!_

"… good job," Undyne's face relaxed. "It's nice to see someone trying to help out the punk through all that."

"Like how you two burned down your house while making spaghetti?" Hope asked, before biting her tongue. _Don't antagonize the fish woman!_ She just managed to not have her on her bad side, she didn't want to change that.

"Exactly!" The fish woman laughed, and thumped Frisk on the back. The child stumbled forward, smiling up at her. Rubbing their back, Frisk turned back to the screen. Besides their back hurting a little now, they were more focused on her. She was… they were expecting someone a little more… well, more. As an anomaly, they were expecting someone evil and giant, not some teenager.

"Hi… Hope," they said quietly.

"No need to be nervous kid," Hope smiled. She rolled her chair as close as she could, and leaned forward to see them better. "I have no grudge against you for anything you've done in the past, or from what other anomalies have made you done. I never meant to cause you any distress." __Or make you have flashbacks to past genocide runs.__ "Trust me in that, Frisk. I was never one of the players responsible for causing you any pain."

"Hehe," Frisk giggled humorlessly. They smiled forcefully at Hope, but they froze at her genuine smile. __She… really cares for me? Even though she… wasn't one responsible for my neutral and genocide runs?__ Their face suddenly felt more relaxed, and Frisk shyly brushed a strand of mossy brown hair out of their face. "Thank you, Hope."

"You're welcome, kid. So Sans." The shorter skeleton perked up, and rolled back over to the machine. Frisk backed away from the monitor, letting Sans have a clear view of Hope as he parked his seat back into place. "May I ask why you decided to bring them with you?" Not that she was not thrilled, but she had told Sans she had wanted to talk about the code this time. __Is he doing this because Papyrus found out about me? Or is it because he didn't want to talk yet?__ She snorted softly, shaking her head. __Clever, bone boy. Real clever.__

"since pap already found us out, i figure it'd be a good time for you to meet the rest of us," Sans shrugged."that, and he already mentioned you to undyne while we were talking yesterday." Hope hummed, rapping her fingers on the keyboard.

"IT'S TRUE, HOPE," Papyrus said. "I SAW NO REASON AS TO NOT TELL MY FRIENDS ABOUT YOU."

"And we are glad you convinced Sans to introduce us to Hope, Papyrus," Toriel added. "If I may ask, are you all alone in your house? Where is your family?"

"Oh, um… well, it's just me and my mom, Toriel." __Toriel. No matter what age or species you are, you will always have her as your goat-mom.__ The maternal instincts touched Hope. Her mom, while obviously loving her, never was around as much as she could have been. Hope hardly saw her on some days, due to her sometimes working double shifts, but she knew deep down that her mom loved her. "She usually rests on Sunday's before she goes back to work."

"Hard working parent?" Undyne asked "Gee, that's rough."

"It is, but I know she means well." Hope twirled a strand of hair, looking at the fish. "Besides, it's not like I'll be here that much longer."

"Wh-where are you going, Hope?" Alphys inquired.

"College," Hope stated. "I'm uh, actually getting into… well, I haven't really decided the job yet, but my bachelor is in computers. To be honest, your game was what got me into that course idea." Sans' sockets widened in disbelief. __our world had that much of an impact on her?__ "I was tossed up between computer programming and physics. So, seeing what I've become involved in here, perhaps trying for a minor in the second subject with my chosen major would be a good idea." she laughed. Alternate realities. While she could not prove their existence so openly, the concept of doing research about it was something she couldn't ignore. Sans was also a huge help in that department, and she wanted to figure out everything there was about the connection between their world and hers.

"i'd say so," Sans finally commented. "we really had that much of an influence on you, huh."

"Not just me, Sans. Some many fans have been impacted by you guys. Writing songs, stories, heck! I fell in love with some of them. Amazing authors sharing their creations with the world, that's what a great fandom does." Hope reached over to her screen, holding the edge fondly. "I however, no longer see it that way. I've never seen Undertale as just a game. I always felt like there was something… special, to it. And now, I can say that without a doubt."

"AW!" Papyrus' sockets teared up, and he walked around Alphys and Frisk to kneel in front of the machine. _How is he… skeletons can cry?_ "THANK YOU, HOPE! WE'RE GLAD TO HAVE MET YOU TOO!"

"Virtual hug!" Hope laughed, and spread her arms out. Papyrus grinned, and the two made a weak attempt at hugging through the screen. Letting go of her laptop, she smiled cheekily at the eager skeleton, seeing that the camera on their side was now tilted. Papyrus let go of the machine, and backed up behind Sans. Once he could reach, the older brother got up to straighten it, so Hope wouldn't have to look at them through an angle.

"It really was nice to meet all of you, but may I please speak privately with Sans for a moment?" Hope cast an almost invisible glare at said monster. Sans however, managed to catch it, and winced. __she's ticked.__

"Of course, Hope." Toriel took Frisk's hand, and began walking towards the exit. "I hope we get to meet again soon." She paused to rethink her sentence, and giggled.

"I know, Toriel. I get punned on with my name all the time," Hope waved it off.

"See ya, punk!" Undyne scooped up Alphys in her arms, and sprinted past Toriel and Frisk, not even allowing the scientist a chance to say goodbye. Papyrus chased after them, and once again, it was just Sans and Hope left together.

 _this isn't gonna be good._ "uh… so, i can explain…"

"You better, Sans!" Hope growled. "You promised me that we would discuss the code today! Why did you lie? Not to mention, a little warning about bringing everybody else in on our conversation too. I wasn't ready to meet everyone, regardless of how well it went." She hadn't mentally prepared herself. True, it went well, but her heart was going mad the first few minutes.

"i didn't kid," Sans frowned, brow bones raising in slight surprise at her choice of words. She was mad at him, and thought he was lying to her about their agreement? N-no. No. No way was he letting this go by so easily. "papyrus was telling the truth in spilling to the others. i figured it'd be best to tell them so they wouldn't get suspicious as to why i've been coming down here more and more often." He leered at Hope, and felt his pupils vanish from his sockets. "i only break promises when i absolutely have to, kiddo. ****never**** assume what i'm like, got it?" __i'm fine when you do it with the knowledge to back it up, but I refuse to have you think i choose to break promises.__

Hope's face turned a stark white, and she shuddered. __It's serious. He's being serious. I-I don't like it.__ Whenever his sockets blackened in Undertale, it meant he was either serious, or… angry. And an angry Sans was something Hope really didn't want on her hands.

"I-I'm sorry, Sans!" Hope stuttered. Her hands flew away from the keyboard, afraid the skeleton would be able to do something through her system. "I didn't mean it like that! I meant that-that I… I…!" Hope sighed, choosing that arguing wasn't going to help her and averted her eyes to her keyboard. _Why is it always like this? Why?_ "Sorry about this Sans." With a small tug, Hope unplugged the two speakers on either side of the screen.

"hope? kid, what're you doin'?" Sans asked. His lights returned, and he watched the teen worriedly. Hope pressed down on a button, and Sans felt the speakers quiet. __she… she muted me?__

 ** **I'm sorry, Sans.**** The video chat window shrunk, moving to a top corner. Finding himself back at the main green screen, he watched the wingdings cross in front of him. What he read though, made his soul drop. ****But I think it'd be best for**** ** **us**** ** **to… think over some things before we speak again.**** ** **I**** ** **f you'll excuse me, I have organic chemistry to finish.**** With a final click, Hope turned off her laptop, plunging her screen into darkness and causing Sans' camera to turn off.

"what? kid? hope?" Sans clicked several buttons, not getting a response. What was that about? Did he scare her that bad? _oh no._ "c'mon, pal. you're not really gonna leave me hangin', are you?" __i didn't mean that, kid. you know that. come on back...__ "please."

* * *

 ** **Feel feels, people! Feel feels!****

 ** **So, we're gonna get to the code. Don't worry about that. But I felt that it was worth introducing the rest of the Undertale crew to Hope.****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	8. Rebuilding One's HOPE

****Disclaimer: It's answer time, everyone. Only way to rebuild what happened last week is to be honest with each other.****

 ** **And several emotional breakdowns. Y'know, the usual.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: And… he screwed up. While I wouldn't mind making him suffer, Hope will definitely give an earful (does he even have ears?) when she returns to her laptop.****

 ** **Pika5490: FEELS! Feel them!****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Not all the time. I was just in a time crunch Friday, and having it posted here came first. Hope will come around, but Sans isn't in for an easy forgiving.****

 ** **AGirl: She had to meet them sooner or later, but then was probably not the greatest time.****

 ** **Guest: Thank you!****

 ** **Andonexus KotD: Feels train is pulling into the station! Choo choo!****

 ** **I only own Hope.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Sept. 10/18****

* * *

"I can't believe the nerve of him!" Hope threw her bag across the room, having it land roughly on her bed and letting the contents spill out form an opened pocket. She grabbed her slippers, putting them on as she continued to rant. "Yeah, I should've acted better, but that's no excuse for his behavior! But… okay, maybe I was overreacting, but still!" _I don't like being put on the spot and being yelled at._ School was interesting, to say the least. The few classmates she tolerated had asked her why she kept muttering death threats under her breath, and sketching Sans in the margins of her notebook.

Her response? "I hate genocide run."

It was a half-truth. She never had played the genocide run, and Hope never would. How could she, when she had no way of knowing if it would affect his dimension or not. Sans' behavior was most likely due to the many genocide runs he had lived through because of the players. He didn't like being played for a fool, having to kill Frisk because he had no choice but to finally act. It was wrong of her to snap at him, but Hope wanted to know so badly why she had that glitch. Why was she the one to be speaking to them? And… why did Sans want to finish working on Gaster's machine?

He hurt her, for accusing her that she knew himself better than he did. Hope never did, the fact she let her idea of him still being a character clouded her judgment. __How could I?__ Hope sighed, sitting down on her bed. __How could I tell Sans that?__ But they were, in reality, both at fault. "I'm gonna have to go online sooner or later." She got up off her bed, and moved over to her desk. Sitting down in her chair, she began turning on her laptop. As the screen loaded, Hope hummed to herself. "I wonder how he's gonna react…oh no."

Logging into her email, she gasped. Her normally empty inbox was full of messages from the same address. ****comicsans**** had flooded her computer, with messages ranging from a single sentence, to an entire paragraph. ****hey hope. you still there?****

 ** **c'mon, pal. please answer.****

 ** **seriously, hope. what's wrong? i didn't scare ya that bad, did i?**** The messages continued like that, with a line or two begging her to return. Hope scrolled past all of them with bitterness, before pausing at the larger message.

 ** **i guess i did act irrationally, huh.**** ** **but you gotta understand where i was coming from, kiddo. have you ever had to deal with a promise to keep a kid safe, but having to break it again and again because of your kind? you players, who kept fooling with our loves like it was all a game? i'm sorry i hurt your feelings hope. i really am. it's just… it hurts, kid. please, buddy. pal. talk to me. let me know if you're alright. i've lost frisk so many times in previous timelines. i don't wanna lose you too.****

"Sans…" Hope sighed, shaking her head. Maybe it was the guilt, either his or her own, but she finally began to type. ****You won't. I'm here, bone boy.****

 ** **hope?**** The reply was almost instant. Wow, had he been waiting for her all this time? ****geez, kid. you, uh… listen. i'm so, so sorry for about that. i was so frustrated with people misjudging me, i wasn't thinking 'bout how you would react.****

 ** **How I would react?**** What did he mean by that?

 ** **yeah. haven't you realized it yet, hope? we're very much alike. we're both aware of the many timelines and the many outcomes, knowing every possible choice and decision. having to keep it secret from people you care about, in fear of making a mistake. you, unlike everyone else that lives here, knows what i've gone through. you know why i acted like that, and it hurt to cause that reaction outta me, huh?****

 ** **Yeah. We're... we're both to blame, Sans. Can… you boot up the video chat?**** Saying sorry was much easier in person than through text.

 ** **way ahead of ya, pal.**** The screen blacked out, and Hope saw the screen brighten into one of a grinning skeleton. Though, it did seem more forced than normal. "hey."

"Hey yourself." Hope flipped her hair over her shoulder, and leaned her arms on the table. "Sans, really, I'm-"

"no need to apologize any further, kid. we can just stop here and agree with what you wrote about it being equal blame." Sans reached down beside his chair, and Hope watched him lift a bottle of ketchup from the floor. Holding it to his mouth, the monster made a gulping noise, and the teen watched him sit it back down again. "what's wrong, kid?"

"You just… hehe. N-nothing, it's just that…" Hope dismissed him. _Still never going to figure that out._ "I knew that you had a thing for ketchup, but if you can't open your mouth… how do you do that?" Sans paused, and looked from the bottle to her. He had... never really given much thought to it, actually. It was such a normal action, he never once questioned it.

"i, uh… huh. i don't really know. never really thought 'bout it that much," he shrugged. "what do you think, hope?"

Hope closed her eyes, and then giggled. _I got it._ "Maaagic!" She replied, trying to make her voice as low as Sans'. Sadly, all that did was make her cough at the end. Sans blinked, before laughing at the response. Once her voice felt better, she eased into her seat. "hehehe. good one, kiddo. you nailed me."

"Well, I'm glad." The two allowed a comfortable silence to fill their rooms, each trying to figure out the next thing to say. Hope looked away for a moment, and sighed. __You can do this, you can do this, you can do this.__ "Sans." The short skeleton blinked, focusing back on her. "Please, tell me about the code and the machine." His grin tensed, and before he could respond, Hope interrupted. She had to say it, before anything else happened. "We can't keep avoiding this, Sans. If we ever want to figure out how and why this is happening, we're gonna have to be honest with each other. No more lies."

"aw, kid." Sans scratched his skull, noticing how she grimaced at the sound. _whoops. been doin' that a lot in these chats._ "you, uh, really want to do this, don't you?" __she's so much more forward 'bout this than i've ever been..__ _ _well, that thought came out wrong__ _ _.__ "alright," he sighed. "no more lies. do you want to go first, or should i?"

"I think it'd be best if I went first," Hope decided. "I'll explain how I got your code, and then you can fill me in on anything else. You know the code and void better than I do, and you have more information too. Let me go first, and see if that'll ring any bells in that thick skull of yours."

Sans nodded, and got up from his chair. "Um, Sans? What are you doing?" He shuffled through the drawers on the other side of the room, and looked back at the camera. "welp, hope. if we're gonna be honest here, might as well record what we talk 'bout." Hope grinned, watching him sit back down with a notebook in his hands. "whenever you're ready, pal."

"Well, it's sort of like I already told you before," Hope began. "I only reset once to get the perfect ending. I never wanted to play any other runs because killing was…" she frowned. "I just couldn't. Regardless of the fact that doing it would corrupt future playthroughs, I never planned on playing it multiple times. Undertale was so much more than a normal RPG game. Normally, the monsters in those games would try to brutally murder you, giving you no option but to attack. After doing so much research on how to play, the different endings, everything you could think of, I bought it." Exhaling softly, she reached down to open a drawer on the desk. "Just like you Sans, I recorded everything to help me on my journey." She held up a small notebook with a pencil stuck through the coils. "Tips for playing, different dialogue, fun value. Though, I didn't see everything. The value thing was always random, but I did see the door to Gaster's room in Waterfall. When I heard about your lab in one of the videos, I knew I had to see it for myself. If you loaded the game a few times, you would give Frisk and the player a password. After proving that we could travel through time, you would give us the key to your room."

"hehe. yeah, i remember that," Sans said. "no matter how many times they'd gone back, hearing them call themselves the legendary fartmaster is always a gas." Hope giggled at the pun as he chuckle in victory. "anyways, continue."

"Right. So when I entered your room, I got the laboratory key from your dresser," Hope proceeded. "Using that led us to your old lab. It was fairly empty, and I had checked the dressers on the side of the lab, and I found… the photo album." Sans stiffened, and his pupils dimmed. "The text underneath read that there were many people Frisk didn't know, and that… you looked happy."

"kid…" Sans' sockets darkened and Hope knew that he wasn't angry at her this time. _He's shocked, and… sad._ The lights were still there, but they weren't as bright as they normally were. "do you know why the caption said that?"

"No, I don't. But it hurt to read it. Yeah, you grin all the time, but that's how your face is built. You're not one to be happy, Sans-wait, that sounded mean." _Phrase that differently, Hope._ "Sometimes, yes, but you're not genuinely happy." Sans noted that she had taken the time to correct herself on the slip of the tongue, but didn't interrupt her explanation. He had to hear this, straight to the end. "So, there was also the machine in the back corner. In the game, it was covered by a tarp, preventing anyone from seeing what it really was. But when I went to check it… glitched."

"glitched?" Sans asked. "what do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it sounds like." Hope frowned, remembering the sound her laptop created when the wingdings appeared. _Weird how I heard the exact same thing right as Sans was trying to connect video feeds._ "After I interacted with the machine, this horrible screeching started coming out of the speakers before it blacked out. Next thing I knew, when the game reloaded itself, the tarp was removed."

"and you saw what was underneath," Sans said, guessing the next part.

"Yep. I brought Frisk over to the machine and clicked it, but the normal text box said something… weird. Sans, the text… it was in wingdings."

Sans' lights brightened, not expecting the answer. _wingdings? she saw…_ "wingdings? kid, are you sure that-?" Hope slammed her hands on the desk, making him stop.

"I know what I saw, Sans!" She shouted, before taking a deep breath to control herself. "Sorry. I… I know what I saw. I saw that strange font spell out… it was some sort of code sent by-wait." She blinked for a moment, before quickly reopening her email tab. "I might not have evidence except for my word, but this is what the glitch showed." Using a document, she quickly managed to type up the message in the mentioned font and sent a screenshot over to him. Judging from his sockets widening and pupils shrinking as a soft ding was heard through the speaker, she guessed it worked.

He had a feeling that something was wrong, the way she was describing how she received the signal. But wingdings? That was the last thing he would've imagined. But Gaster's wingdings… well, that was unexpected. He had specific ones, used from the three most common fonts, made to create his own language should anyone ever come looking for his work. __comicsans, huh?__ Sans translated the word in his head, chuckling at the irony. __nice to know this thing has a sense of humor.__ She did have a point. It was her word against his, but there was no possible way she could have connected to their world on purpose. The signal she had received came in the form of… an email address? "so then what happened, kid?" Sans asked, scribbling the explanation down as fast as he could.

"Well, seeing the first part kind of made me believe the game was just giving me an email to you as an Easter egg. Y'know, something to play with after finishing the game. But," Hope looked down in concern. "I kept thinking that there was something… off, with this. That there was a lot more going on."

"then you sent off that first message," Sans ended. "you thought that whether or not this worked, you wanted to apologize for everything, and to…" he sighed. "… to make sure i wasn't in pain." Sans put a hand on the screen, the closest he could get to the teen. "you really try too much, kid. you know that, right?"

"I know… I've been told that. I like to believe that my trait is kindness, while still keeping a healthy dose of sarcasm thrown in at random," Hope laughed. "Alright, Sans. I've told my story, now it's your turn." Sans nodded slowly. This was something he dreaded, but she was right. He couldn't avoid this forever, he had to tell her. He had to tell someone.

"give me a sec." Sans turned around and got up, walking over to the basement steps. He peered up at the top before walking back over to her. "just wanted to make sure paps or anyone else didn't come down here."

"Fair enough," Hope said. "So Sans, I won't deny the facts about what the machine is really for. Searching for life outside your dimension and signals and stuff. But why did you decide to run it now? Why not in other timelines?"

"that actually, has to do with you hope," Sans scratched his skull anxiously. Shivering at the noise, Hope rolled her wrist, ushering him to explain. "in previous timelines, we were never on the surface for very long. but you? you had the signal. you somehow brought our worlds into a deeper connection using the machine and your laptop, and halted the players from being able to reset. with the extra time, i was able to finish rebuilding the device. usually, i only got halfway through before ending back in snowdin with papyrus waking me up to go on sentry duty."

"So I gave you more time than normal," Hope concluded. "I guess you'd think that maybe Frisk would bring you back down there at any moment, huh?" Sans sighed, proving her idea. "Oh boy, Sans. Did you really blame Frisk that much for everything?"

"i've been a terrible friend, hope." Sans pinched his nose bone, tilting his skull back against the chair. "how could i have put them through all of that, and they still somehow try to be friends with me?"

"Sans, calm down. It's not your fault," Hope said. He was getting too wound up, didn't he know that? He wasn't thinking straight.

"yes it is!" He retorted angrily. Sans whirled back to look at her, and Hope pushed back her chair in shock. The monster's lights had vanished, and a glowing blue left eye was all that remained. Flames trailed from the socket, drifting up around the back of his head. No tears, but it seemed he was very close to it. "i've threatened a kid even when they were never a murderer, telling them that it was only a deal that held me back from killing them. a deal i'd made with a woman i never even met until the first pacifist timeline! even after all those resets and timelines, where i knew what frisk was really like, i'd keep having to follow the code! follow the rules to make sure nothing different happened!" Sans buried his skull in his hands, bony fingers pitifully digging into the roof of his head. "what sort of... monster am i?"

"Sans, get a hold of yourself!" Hope shouted the last part, and Sans snapped up to meet her grayish blue eyes with his one glowing socket. _Oh, I hope mom isn't downstairs to hear that._ Last thing she needed was her coming upstairs and seeing her trying to console a living skeleton through her computer. "You're not a monster, okay? You screwed up, I'm not gonna deny that. But beating yourself up over it isn't gonna fix anything. Don't you think Frisk hadn't felt the same, when they were forced into those situations due to the player?"

"Chara, due to their connection with Frisk, had probably felt the exact same thing. Sans, it's not your fault, nor is it either of theirs. If anyone is to blame, it's the players." Hope looked down, sighing deeply as she voiced the guilt she had felt when she first learned the truth about the connection between worlds. "I... I'm just as much to blame as them. We're the ones who had out you all through so much pain. We're the ones who had forced you all to live through that journey over, and over again."

Sans watched her silently, feeling his magic start to fade from his socket. "Sans, I'll never know what you've been through. But beating yourself up over the past won't help. You have friends who love you, a brother who admires you… I see now that maybe, perhaps we're not just trying to save your dimension, but maybe we're trying to... save you too."

"… me?" His lights finally returned to his eyes, albeit dimmed from his emotional outburst. "you want to save… me?"

"Of course, Sans. You're my friend, aren't you? This isn't just about keeping your dimension safe from players anymore, it's also about two friends who just want to help each other." Hope put a hand on each side of her screen, looking at him. "I swear to Toby Fox, I won't leave you Sans. You're stuck with me, for better, or for worse." _Never thought that sentence would come out of me._

"kid… hope…" Sans looked away, his form shaking lightly before turning back to the human. "hehehe… thanks hope. you're, uh, hehe, stuck with me too." He fiddled with the collar of his hoodie, twisting the fur in his digits. "kid? you, uh… remember how i mentioned gaster?"

"Yeah? What about him?" He just had a mental breakdown, and he wanted to change the topic already? True, they did that earlier, but wasn't it a little too soon? And what did Gaster have to do with anything other than the fact wingdings were his thing?

"gaster's… he's my father," Sans finally admitted, feeling a weight lift from his chest. _there. i said it._ Hope gaped at him silently, and he knew that that wasn't what she was expecting to hear. Maybe it was. Maybe she had already suspected something for a while, but kept it to herself. "when he fell into the core… everyone forgot 'bout him. alphys all of a sudden became the royal scientist; just… it was like he never existed. papyrus… maybe he remembered, but he was so young when it happened. all that remained from gaster's existence was my memory and the machine that had broken down after the… incident."

"It… broke down?" Hope repeated. "How'd that happen?"

"well, since gaster never existed, neither did his portion of the device. only my section was completed. it took me years to go over his plans and rebuild everything. he'd been working on this since before i was born, so you can understand why it took so long." Sans set the notebook on the side of the machine, his skeletal fingers cramping from the long discussion. "so, uh… now you know. now you know why this machine is so important."

"You're… you're trying to find him again." It made perfect sense. The machine reached out into the void, and that was where Gaster was. At least… that's where Sans believed he was. No wonder he was so anxious when they were first in contact. He thought that in the beginning it was Gaster he was talking to. But… things took a turn. Instead, he found answers he thought he would never get, and truths that might have been best left alone. "You thought I was him when I sent that first message. Sans, is there any way I could help?"

"dunno," he shrugged helplessly. "i've been trying to figure this out since the beginning, kid. but personally, i think we've had enough emotional baggage for today, wouldn't you agree?"

"Hehe, yeah." Hope set her notebook on her desk, and glanced at the clock in the bottom corner of her computer. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sans. It's getting late, and I have homework" She reached to close the window, waiting to hear him say bye as well, before he interrupted her.

"wait. i'm not done yet." She paused. "did you really mean that?"

"Mean what?"

Sans inched closer to the screen, his large skull filling up her laptop. __Wow, those are some huge eye sockets.__ "the thing earlier. you're really gonna stick with me on this?"

"Naturally," she replied. "At first, I just wanted to figure out what's going on here. Originally, I just thought it was the game playing with me. But I know now that wasn't the case. There's a reason why I'm the one that you're talking too. Don't know why, but we're in this for the long haul." Hope held her hand against the screen, and Sans met it with his own. His grin stretched, and the skeleton felt… relieved. The strange, otherworldly girl was much more understanding than he gave her credit for. __if you weren't so kind hope, i would've thought your trait was determination.__ "See you later, Sans."

"see ya, pal," he winked. Mouse in hand, she finally closed the window, bidding the monster farewell. "wow. now hasn't this just gotten more interesting."

* * *

 ** **This was a really important chapter. I had to do this; having Sans break down made me feel somewhat horrible, but it had to be done.****

 ** **Also, in case you guys didn't know, Undertale is going to be released for the ps4 and Switch!****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	9. HOPE's Found Through the Void

****Disclaimer: This is a bit of a tipping point in HOPE. Now, our heroes might finally start to get the answers they've been looking for.****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Easy there, pal. You can hate on Sans later.****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Feels galore! Don't worry, I'll keep posting on the other site.****

 ** **MajorKO: Sadly for you, there's not gonna be AU's in here. The public voted, and we chose not to add them. I'm certain you'll like the original plan though.****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: It's gonna take some time to think of him as a real person, instead of a character.****

 ** **AGirl: FEELS!****

 ** **artfully: That sounds really interesting. But we'll figure out the trait thing eventually. Maybe I'll use your idea in it too.****

 ** **TheParadoxicalOxymoron: Flowey, maybe. Asriel? I don't think so. Sorry, but he doesn't play a role in this story. He might be mentioned now and then, but that's it.****

 ** **Karridwen: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying my stories!****

 ** **MemorySteel: Thanks. Glad you're enjoying the story.****

 ** **I don't own Undertale.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 **Edited: Sept. 11/18**

* * *

"S-Sans, a-are you sure about this?" Alphys watched the short skeleton shuffle around behind the machine, hearing the small buzz of a blowtorch. "I-I mean, is this really a g-good idea?" She asked, raising her voice for him to hear her.

"dunno, alphys," came the muffled reply. Sans poked his skull out from behind the machine, dirt smudging the white bone. "but if this works, than hope and i'll have a better chance to figure out why this is happening."

"B-But…" Alphys sighed, before nodding in defeat. Sans was set on this, and she didn't seem to be able to change his mind. "A-alright, Sans. B-but you b-better let her know what your plan is." She was right, Sans hummed as he fused two wires together. The scientist was right. What he was trying to accomplish, was something that could potentially solve their problem and destroy it at the same time.

For the past week, Hope and him had been chatting every evening after the teen returned home from school. Sans would sometimes help her with her homework, explaining mathematical equations that she had trouble with, accompanied with puns to get the point across. But the conversation the two had a few days ago, sparked an idea that Sans couldn't get out of his head.

"It would be so much more helpful if we could actually talk face to face Sans," Hope had mused, head in her hand. Sans raised a brow bone at the idea, wondering why she had brought that up. "Not that this isn't helpful, Sans, but…" she sighed. "I really wish we could meet in real life. This video chat can only help us so much."

She was correct. While they had pieced together how they were connected, they hadn't figured out ****why**** they were connected. The video chat idea she had before was a breakthrough, but Sans wondered… if they could talk through the void, was it possible to break through the window further? Split it open, and allow more than mere data to come through?

"i know that this is dangerous, al." Sans stepped back from the machine, swatting off the cobwebs stuck to his hoodie. "but this is the only idea i've got left." Right next to the original machine, was a large rectangular box. A sensor was attached at the top, with several tubes feeding wires from the box to the signal receiver. The top of the box had several holes at the top, allowing an electrical charge to emit into the box to contain the electrons, and have them construct again after being fed through the void.

"Y-you better contact her, S-Sans. H-Hope should know what you're about to do," Alphys warned, before sighing. "I-I'll be upstairs if you need me. G-good luck." The lizard headed towards the stairs, and gave one last look at the skeleton before leaving.

 _ _thanks, alphys,__ Sans thought. _i'm gonna need it._ Both of them were. He moved to the front of the machine, and booted it up. "hey kiddo. mornin'." Hope grinned at him, eyes sparkling in excitement. __someone's happy today.__ "what's the special occasion?"

"I finished my exams!" She laughed, and spun around in the chair. "Woo!" It had been a rough week for certain, with a small mental break down the night before. Thank goodness Sans had helped her with her calculus and chemistry. _Not so much with bio though. His idea of skeletons for humans is much different than mine._ "What about you, Sans? How've you been?"

"pretty good," Sans returned the grin. It was nice to no longer have any secrets… well, as far as they would willingly admit. There still seemed to be something she was hiding from him, about her family, but he didn't want to slow down the research they had going. "i've been working on somethin' for the past couple o' days too." He scratched his skull nervously, taking note of Hope's grimace at the action. "uh… so, you remember how you talked 'bout us meeting some day. y'know, outside of the video chat?"

"Yeah? What about it, Sans?" Hope asked curiously. Where was he going with this? She knew that it was impossible for them to actually meet in real life. A possibly unfinished abyss of code blocked them from ever seeing more than just an image of well-crafted pixels through a camera.

"i, uh… might've fixed that problem," he chuckled awkwardly. "y'see, hope. the only thing preventing us from interacting more than this is the void. but, thanks to some research and alphys' assistance, i managed to build something that'll solve that." __He… he figured out a way for us to meet?__ Hope couldn't believe her ears. He had made something that would allow them to meet, in real life!? "judging by your face, i can assume you're excited?"

"Of course I'm excited!"She rolled closer, placing her head in her hands and her elbows on the desk. "Sans, you actually made something that could bring me to your dimension?"

"yep." Sans' grin stretched even further, the monster feeding off the energy the girl was giving off. "it took a while to come up with the basic schematics, but i'm sure it'll work." He paused, and looked at the box beside him. "hold on there for a sec." He picked up the camera that was mounted on the machine, and turned it so it was facing the new device. "by amplifying the signal more than what i'd done for the video chat to work, i'll be able to broadcast it through your laptop."

"Okay then." _Well, it definitely looks like he was busy. Looks like some sort of weird supercharged shower._ Hope nodded slowly, trying to wrap her brain around his explanation. "So, how do I get there?"

"the signal will scramble your molecules and atoms, turning them into a malleable form of data that can be transferred through the void." __Uh… what?__ Hope blinked, wondering if she heard that correctly. He… he wanted to alter her organic makeup? "like an electric shock."

"An electric shock that basically vaporizes me," she deadpanned. "Sans, um, h-how safe is that?"

 _ _about 25 percent safe.__ His grin faltered, seeing that she was as nervous about that as he had expected. Alphys had given him the numbers a few hours ago when she first arrived. He didn't like it, but it was better than nothing. Besides, wasn't that how their world behaved? By chance? "it's… safe enough," he hesitantly replied. "relax, kid. you're not gonna end up like gaster. i've done plenty of calculations, checked for any possible signs of error, and had alphys beside me all the way." Sans sighed, seeing the nervousness still on her face. It was no surprise. If someone came up to him and told him they were about to disassemble his molecules and launch him through the void, he'd start going in the opposite direction as fast as possible. But Hope hadn't run yet. That was a… good sign.

"I-I know, Sans." Hope twirled a piece of hair, looking down. "It's just… I would love to meet you and Frisk and everyone else in person, but I… I don't want to do it if it means putting my life on the line. Sans, i-if I did this," she looked hard at the skeleton. "Would I be able to get back home?" She couldn't be gone forever. She had to stay there, with her mom. If something happened, and the machine malfunctioned… she didn't want her mom to be alone.

"you will, kid. don't worry 'bout a thing. the machine here," he shook the camera lightly. "is connected to the signal provider. The code will be fed through the wires, and the container will contain the charges that are your body. your data. you would then reform as the data would have nowhere else to go, and there you go."

"Let me get this straight." Hope held up a hand, making him stop. "You're gonna shock me using the signal we've been chatting through, I'll fly through the void as an incorporeal being of ones and zeros, before supposedly reforming in your lab?"

"… uh, yeah." Sans shrugged in agreement. To put it bluntly, that's basically the idea. "that's the gist of it. so then, what do you think?"

 _ _I think it's near insane, that's what.__ She knew that Sans was smart, but what he was suggesting, to bring her into his dimension through that method… it-it couldn't be done. But yet… suppose it could work. Suppose she somehow did end up in his world. Then what? What else could they possibly discuss from there? Sans and her had already talked about the purpose of the machine and the signal, and the only thing she could think of that they could work on together was trying to find Gaster. If she could travel through the void, if they could communicate through it, then who's to say they couldn't find him?

On the other hand, there might've been more to this than he let on.

Their friendship was no longer just about figuring out the void dilemma, or searching for Gaster. __Well, part of it is,__ Hope reminded herself. But this was also because they had bonded over there similar problem: knowing about everything before it could happen. The resets and timelines. Sans and Hope. They were friends now; and for the girl, the pun loving monster was her only close friend.

"I think… it's dangerous, crazy, and stupid," Hope admitted. Sans' face fell, his lights dimming in disappointment. "However." He shot up to look at her. Hope's scared look was still there, but a small smirk now accompanied it. "I happen to enjoy crazy." __is she…?__ "I'll do it, Sans."

"y-you will?" He couldn't believe it. She was willing to go through with his plan, despite the consequences? __kid, you're either really stupid… or really brave.__ Bravery. Another soul trait. After seeing Frisk's behavior in their pacifist runs so many times, he had come to the conclusion that humans, like monsters, could exhibit almost all soul traits. However, unlike a monster, a human had one trait that stood out more than the rest. A monster had specific traits to their magic too, but they were all mixed together into their white soul. A monster's trait was love; a combination of all seven traits. However, they could specialize in one or two attributes. Undyne was kindness for some… strange reason. Muffet was perseverance, and Papyrus was integrity. His own powers involved justice and patience ** **.**** They were only shown when he was in battle though, yet any use of his magic outside of combat showed patience ** **.**** _ _i really need to determine what her soul trait is.__ "buddy, pal, you can't understand how much that means to me. that you're willing to try this is… is incredible," he laughed.

"Yeah, well, I'm glad you're excited to be using me as a human guinea pig," Hope said. "When do you want to try this anyway?"

"as soon as you're ready, kid," Sans replied, maybe more eager than he should be. "everything is set up on my end, so it's all up to you at this point." Up to her. Well, she had finished her exams already. Hope looked at the calendar on her desk, noting the dates circled. __I have prom and grad next week, but almost a week in between now and then.__ "well, kid?"

"I have five days before prom," she began. "Two days after is graduation, and then I'm off for the summer to find work. While it would be a great idea to try it then, when I have a few months off, I need the time to get ready for college. Maybe I can convince my mom and tell her I'm visiting a friend for a few days, before I get ready to adult."

"adult isn't an action," Sans raised a brow.

"In my mind, it is. Taxes, and mortgages, and other gross stuff like that." Hope shuddered, hearing a chuckle come through the speakers. "I'll be right back, Sans. If I get the go from my mom, you'll have to give me a few minutes to pack some gear."

"sounds reasonable, hope. i'll be here waiting," Sans grinned. He minimized the chat window, and she was booted back to her desktop. _He's still there. The tab's still open._ Hope could make out him smiling at her in the top corner, giving a small wave. Giggling, she stood up from the chair, and headed to the living room. __Alright, Hope. You can do this.__ _ _A__ _ _ll you have to do is lie to your only family about traveling across the multiverse with the help of a living video game skeleton.__ Oh, how messed up her life had gotten.

"Mom?" She turned around the bottom of the stairs, finding her mom in the kitchen working with a pile of papers in front of her along with a calculator and laptop. "Can I ask you something?"

She looked up at Hope, and smiled. "Yes dear? Is something bothering you?"

"Not really," Hope shrugged, moving over towards her as she talked. "It's just an… old friend of mine had asked if I could come visit for a few days. I was wondering if I could go." She rocked back and forth on her heels anxiously as she came to a stop. "So… can I?"

"Hope, you have your prom and grad remember?" Her mom reminded her, frowning. "I don't want you missing the last few important events in high school just to visit someone I've never met." _Truthfully, I know a lot of people you've never met. Frisk, Toriel, Papyrus… just to name a few._

"Mom, I'll be back in the morning of prom," Hope sighed. "I'll have plenty of time to get changed and hair and blah, blah, blah. Please?" She knitted her fingers together, and stuck out her bottom lip. "Please mom? How can you say no to this face?" The older woman shook her head, and smiled fondly at the girl.

"Alright, alright." Hope's mother laughed. Ah, her daughter was a strange one. It was amazing how she could still keep a smile on her face sometimes. "You can go. But just… be careful, please?" The older woman stood up, moving over to her and rested her hands on her shoulders. "I don't want to get a call and… and…" she looked down. No need for painful memories, but... the worry she held was still there. "I can't lose you too, Hope."

Losing her… that one line almost made the teen second-guess her choice. She'd be traveling across dimensions, to a world that shouldn't even exist. There was… the odd chance that something could go wrong, and she… did she want this? _But… Sans._ An image of the skeleton popped into her head, and her hands turned to fists, nails digging into her palms. _I… I have to go. Not just for myself, but for him._ They had to figure this out, and while she wanted desperately to tell the truth, she couldn't. It had to remain a secret.

"You won't, mom," Hope whispered. She hugged her mom, and felt herself having her hair smoothed down. "I'll be back. I promise." She let go of her mom, and grinned. "I gotta go pack." Hope ran back to the stairs, and swung herself over the railing. Landing somewhat gracefully, she giggled. __Wait. One last thing.__ "Mom?" The elder woman looked back at her from her work. "I love you." _Just… just in case._

"I love you too, my Hope. Have fun." Hope nodded, and walked back up the stairs. Closing and locking the door, she hummed to herself. __I can't believe she said yes.__ With her family's history, the fact her mom was allowing her to go surprised her. But… she wasn't entirely as shocked as she thought she'd be. Her mom couldn't watch over her forever, and they both knew that. _She won't lose me. I can promise her that._ She opened her closet, and pulled out her black book bag, having already emptied it from school. Loading a few sets of clothes into the bag, she shoved them as far as possible into the bottom to make enough space.

"There. That should do it." She dragged the bag over to the laptop, and maximized the window. "Sans?"

"yeah, kid?"

"I got permission to go see an 'old friend' of mine for a few days from my mom," Hope grinned anxiously. "Everything's packed and ready." __I can't believe I'm gonna do this.__ "Sans, a-are you absolutely certain this won't… kill me?"

 _ _am i? not really, no. but… if we want answers, we're gonna have to experiment, kiddo.__ "i promise you, hope. i won't allow this or anything else to harm you."

"I made a promise to always stay next to you, and in turn you make a promise too?" Hope giggled. "I thought you didn't like promises."

"only when i have to break 'em. i won't break this one, pal," Sans backed his chair from the machine, and cracked his knuckles. _…_ _ouch._ "you ready?"

"I…" she took a deep breath, before nodding. __Seeing this huge adventure set before you… it fills you with determination.__ "I'm ready."

"then let's do this." Shutting down the video window, Sans began typing rapid code into the keyboard, the humming of the machine beginning to increase. Reaching over, he flicked several switches, booting up the tank. He could make out the sparks of rouge electricity coursing through the wires in the translucent tubes. The whirring began to sharpen, and Sans became aware of the lights flickering above him. _how much power is this taking?_ "c'mon, c'mon, c'mon."

Hope stared at her laptop, watching the screen switch to black. "So… is it worki-AAHH!" _Not again!_ The high pitch screech burst through her speakers, and a large series of wingdings glitched across the glass. "Sans!?" __Is__ _ _t__ _ _his supposed to happen!?__ Hope looked to her power button nervously. While she was no longer shouting, in fear of bringing her mother up into her room when there was already a lot of noise, she kept her hands over her ears. _Maybe… something went wrong?_ Carefully, she reached towards the button with one hand while keeping the other over an ear, and grazed her finger across it. "Sans, I swear–AHH!"

A bolt of electricity shot through the button and the wires, making the backlighting of her keyboard flash on and off rapidly. The spark ricocheted through her body, making her feel as if hundreds of tiny needles were stabbing her from the inside. Not enough to rip through skin, but enough to leave lasting pain. As fast as it began though, with her body convulsing rapidly, the current finally died down. "O-oh…" Hope's eyes rolled into the back of her head, and her head slammed into her keyboard, her entire world going black and cold.

* * *

What was it like, to travel through the void and having their body being scrambled into data and code? For Hope, it was… painful. She couldn't remember much, but when she collapsed onto her computer, she felt her body… oscillate, like her entire being was being torn apart and put back together. Her eyes were heavy, but the human was able to open them just enough to see… see, what exactly? "… wh-what…?"

Darkness. Pure inky darkness as far as she could see. But, there was some color. Yes, the purple lines etched onto the ground far below her. The glowing lights coursed around the abyss, sending new streaks once the bright color darkened enough. __Is this… the code…?__ She struggled to think, the shock draining her energy. It felt like she was being pulled apart, with one end where she started, and the other somewhere far, far ahead. __I… want to… wake up. I… want to… get out of here… Sans, where… are you…?__

A tugging sensation came from ahead of her, and she felt herself being pulled through the void away from where she floated. It was cold around her. No sun. No light except for the markings on the floor. It was… empty and devoid of life.

Yet, Hope could feel… warmth. The pulling was warm and… comforting. It was… familiar. __Sans…?__

* * *

Sans looked from the screen of fast oncoming code, and up at the tank. He could see the flow of energy beginning to dispense into the container from the top, the crackling of electricity bouncing off the walls. "c'mon, pal. let's take this nice and slow." The wingdings wrote themselves out on the monitor at a pace he couldn't keep up with, and he knew that she was getting close now. "we almost got it."

* * *

Hope felt herself begin to… awaken? It wasn't cold anymore, but it wasn't as if she was fully awake. The warmth certainly felt closer though, which helped ease her into some form of consciousness. It might not have been so bad, had she not felt her body being thrown against a wall. Something… stopped her from going any further. __Ow…__ Hope winced. The pulling sensation increased, and she felt herself being pushed harder and harder against the wall. It felt like it was bending underneath her, fighting to keep her from passing through.

 _ _Please… let me__ _ _go in. I need… to be there__ _ _.__ The tugging slowed for a moment, before finally giving one last hard yank, as if whoever was on the other side was yanking on the invisible rope as hard as they could. In a silent scream, Hope's body broke through the barrier and onto the other side. She wasn't there for long, as the human vanished in a burst of bright blue data.

* * *

"did it-did it work?" Sans jumped from his seat, and ran to the tank, trying not to slide on the tiled floor with his slippers. He placed his hands on the glass, and watched a discharge of energy expel from the vents in a violent burst. He had to crank the power, when he saw that the flow of energy wasn't coming through the system as fast as it could've. Apparently, increasing the power did the trick. Although... he hoped the brief power surge didn't affect anything upstairs.

As the molecules drifted down, the skeleton could make out the outline of something beginning to reform inside, curled up by the glass wall opposite of him. "heh… hehe… hehehehe. i-it worked. it actually worked!" The teen whom he had begun to talk to, who managed to break all laws of physics in her own dimension, was slumped against the back of the tank. Despite a few burns on her skin and clothes, possibly from how he had to up the signal, i-it worked. He had done it.

"welcome to ebott, hope." Sans opened the door, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "we've been waitin' for ya." __i've been waitin' for ya. hehehe. time to finally get the answers we've been looking for, kid.__

* * *

 ** **Things are gonna get interesting.****

 ** **I hope I portrayed Hope's arrival well enough. If there's any errors, let me know so I can fix them.****

 ** **Well, time to go have a fun weekend. See you all next Saturday!****

 ** **Angel****


	10. HOPE in Undertale

****Disclaimer: Happy 150th birthday, Canada! Get the sparklers and fireworks, we're in for a blast!****

 ** **guisniperman: No genocide here. We're still in pacifist. But you are correct in the questioning of whether she can still control the timeline. Sans will have to test this once Hope wakes up.****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: AAHHH!****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Let's hope so. Sans and her really don't want any more resets.****

 ** **MemorySteel: Sort of. It's mostly the aftereffects of having your body being ripped apart into code, and then thrown through the void by a machine controlled by a short chubby skeleton. Yeesh, what has Hope's life come to?****

 ** **xPricefieldx: All aboard the hype train!****

 ** **Pika5490: I wouldn't say plot shield. She is gonna be affected by the transportation.****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Answers AND virtual hugs? It's all up to them now!****

 ** **Brooke Lewis: Why thank you!****

 ** **AGirl: There shall be pie! What point is Undertale without the pie?****

 ** **I own Hope, not Undertale.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 **Edited: Sept. 12/18**

* * *

 _ _Ow, my head.__ Hope winced, and slowly reached up to grab the side of her head. __What… happened? All I remember was the computer screeching and touching the power button…? Sans! Did-did it work?__ The girl eased into opening her eyes, and frowned. __Why's everything so… blurry?__ Her vision showed what looked like a laboratory, but the entire room was foggy. An absolute haze. "Sans…?"

"right here, hope." She leaned forward, looking for the rumbling voice. A soft squeaking came from beside her, and she watched someone get off of a chair, and came over to her. They knelt down, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "was waiting for you to wake up. how are you feeling?"

"Dizzy. My vision's a little wonky, Sans." Hope looked around in confusion. __Where am I? Is this… Sans' lab?__ From what she could make out, it did look like the same room that was seen through her laptop. "How long is this gonna last?"

"not too long. it's just the aftereffects of the machine playing with your organic composition. c'mere, give me your hand." Hope saw the fuzzy white blob in front of her, and grabbed it. "hehehe. you're surprised, aren't you? that it worked?"

"Y-yeah, I am. Who wouldn't be?" She felt herself get pulled to her feet, and another arm wrap around her body to steady herself. Her hand almost lurched away, before reminding herself exactly what she was holding. "It's just… sorry, I've never felt bone before." Sans chuckled, and Hope felt his rib cage rumble against her in laughter. Looking down, Hope saw that the muggy vision had begun to disappear, and a sight that one would not consider normal greeted her. _Normal for anyone but me._

Her skin covered hand was intertwined with a smaller, skeletal one. Letting her eyes trail upwards, following a royal blue sleeve that hung loosely over an arm to a large skull with small patches of dust on the cheekbones. Two large sockets stared back at her, with small glowing orbs hovering inside them that expressed so many emotions she didn't know where to start. "Uh… hi."

"sup, kiddo," Sans grinned. He couldn't believe it. The strange girl he had only seen through his computer, was now watching him in absolute astonishment. The player, the anomaly, was in his world. He'd done it. "you feelin' alright now? can i let you go?"

"Uh, s-sure." He nodded, and let his hand slip out of Hope's. She brought her hand up to her face, examining it. Everything felt alright. She was breathing, and didn't seem to be missing anything important. But the most important part, was that she was there. There, in a different dimension. _I… I'm in a different dimension._ "I-I'm really here. You-you actually brought me through the void." She paused, before a large smile spread over her face. "Ha ha ha ha! You-you did it!" She reached forward, and threw her arms around the short monster to hug him. __whoa!__ "You really are real!"

That was it. She had only known him through her laptop for the past couple of weeks, only seeing through a camera, and talking through a chat board. This was the first time their worlds had fully crossed over, without his being reset. "yeah, kid. i'm real." Hope released him, and he chuckled. "wow, this is, uh, funny, huh?"

"What is, Sans?" Hope asked. He shook his head, and gestured to himself. "Oh. Oh! Hehehe, yeah, it is pretty funny." She had forgotten that he said he was shorter than her. Sans stood almost up to her shoulders, having to look up at her. __He was 4 foot 6 or 7, if I recall correctly.__ "And you're the older one."

"yep. but remember kid, you don't wanna know what i am in human years," Sans reminded her teasingly. "c'mon. they're waitin' for you." Sans walked over to the stairwell, and looked back. "are you comin'?"

"Ye-yeah!" Hope jogged over to him, and looked up the flight of stairs. "Who's waiting for me?"

"the others, of course." They began to walk upstairs, but not before Sans turned off the lights for the lab. "remember, i had told you alphys was helping me build this. she probably told the rest of the guys about this by now." He stopped at the top, and grabbed the knob. "uh, hope? there's, uh, one more thing i should tell you." Hope looked at him, and flinched slightly. Sans' lights had dimmed, and she could tell this was about to get serious. "the rest of them don't know about the real reason behind the machine, or the resets. all i had said was that the machine sent out a signal, and that you and the other anomalies controlled our journey. there were respective games for each player, but it was random for who got to affect us."

"Okay, Sans. I get it," Hope nodded. "I won't say anything I shouldn't."

"thanks, kid." Hope watched him open the door, and blinked. The bright sunlight shone into her eyes, and she stepped out of the basement. The two walked out of the stairwell, and into a fairly large garden. Large pine trees grew behind the garden giving way to a large forest, with a tall brown fence along the sides to mark the backyard. Hope walked ahead of Sans, and looked around her. __Roses, daffodils, tulips… echo flowers?__ She walked over to the dark blue flowers behind the tiny white fence that marked out the massive flower bed, taking note of the faint glow they gave off. They matched the pixel version she saw online, with a sweet scent accompanying them. "Cool."

"Cool… cool… cool…" the flowers repeated back, mimicking her voice perfectly. Hope jumped back in surprise, and giggled. __Right. Echo flowers. Key word: echo.__ She looked back at Sans, and walked back over to him. "Sorry, got distracted."

"it's okay, hope. i'd expected you to get a little shell shocked when you arrived. this way." Sans gestured to follow her, and the two walked around to the front of the house. If it wasn't for her company, Hope would've figured she was still in her own neighborhood. It looked like a normal residential area. Children playing in yards, beautiful flowers growing everywhere, and people chatting as they pull into or leave their houses. Sans reached up to his skull, and rubbed at the dirt still on his cheekbones. __i'll fix this later,__ he decided. "here we are."

Hope tensed, and shuffled behind the shorter skeleton. Not like that would do her any good, as he didn't really hide her presence. "They'll… like me, right?" She had only met them once, but from their initial reaction, Toriel and Undyne weren't very… friendly. They liked her, after seeing how she behaved and knowing the full truth about what was happening, but they were still two monsters that made her anxious.

"they'll love you, kid." He opened the door, and stepped inside. __Deep breaths, Hope. Deep breaths.__ Inhaling, Hope stepped in afterwards. If it wasn't for the living skeleton beside her, she would've thought she was still in her own dimension. It looked somewhat like a larger version of Toriel's house from the Ruins, with a bit of the brothers' house thrown in. Quaint, homey, but showed it was definitely lived in. It was neat and tidy, with a warm and cozy feeling when she saw the bookshelves in the hallway and living room. Yet it still had the green couch, bone picture, and the random sock by the fireplace with sticky notes from the skelebros' house. "what do you think?"

"It's perfect," Hope whispered, smiling. It really was. She looked down at Sans, grinning. "It's absolutely perfect, Sans."

"glad you think so-oof!" Hope was shoved backwards as a taller white, blue, and red blur tackled Sans, lifting him up into the air. __Papyrus?__ The new skeleton was roughly the same height as her, maybe a little taller, and was currently squeezing the life out of his older brother. "p-papyrus!"

"HELLO, SANS! DR. ALPHYS HAD CAME UP HERE A FEW MINUTES AGO. SHE SAID THAT YOUR SECRET PROJECT WAS ALMOST DONE. SO… DID IT WORK?" He dropped Sans, smiling brightly. "WELL?"

Panting, Sans clutched his chest in pain. "huh… huh… yeah… papyrus… it worked."

"WELL THEN, WHAT IS IT?" Hope shook her head fondly, and tapped Papyrus on the shoulder. "NOT NOW, HOPE." __Three, two one.__ Hope counted down in her head, just as she had done when she first met Sans through her computer. As she was finished, the younger skeleton finally figured it out."HOPE?" Papyrus turned around, and stared slack jawed at her. "YOU'RE HERE?"

"Yep! Sans figured out a way to bring me here from my world to yours," she grinned. "Now, I'm he-ah!" Papyrus hoisted her up into the air, just as he had done with Sans, except she was held out at arms length so he could look at her. "Pa-Papyrus!"

"WOWIE!" Papyrus cheered. "THIS IS INCREDIBLE! NOW WE CAN BE FRIENDS IN REAL LIFE TOO!" The brunette looked down at him from her uncomfortable position, and laughed.

"Yeah, I guess so!" Hope watched her legs swing back and forth from being several feet off the ground, finding the entire reaction hilarious.

"alright, paps. i think hope's had enough," Sans interrupted. He had a feeling Papyrus would be the most excited about her arrival, but with the stress still on her body from the transportation, he didn't want Paps to break her by accident.

"OH. ALRIGHT, SANS." Hope was lowered to the floor, and she grinned up at him. "IS THAT BETTER, HOPE?"

"Much better, Papyrus." She rubbed her arm, feeling the slight tenderness of her muscles. No shock that she was still hurting, but hopefully it wouldn't last much longer. She turned back to Sans, and tilted her head curiously. "Where's the others?"

"everyone should be in the kitchen," he replied after pausing to think. It made the most sense. Toriel was baking last time he was upstairs. "you ready to go meet them, kid?" Ready? Heck, she was more nervous than anything else. But if she was able to launch herself across the void, then she should be able to handle meeting them… maybe.

"I-I guess so, Sans." Chuckling, Sans took her hand in his own once again. "c'mon. it's this way." With Papyrus following behind, the two walked down a large hallway and stopped at a large yellow arch, the same bright color as most of the walls. __There they are,__ Hope smiled. Toriel was at the kitchen counter, taking a hot pie out of the oven with Frisk beside her watching her eagerly. Alphys and Undyne were sitting at the table, deep in conversation. Judging by the deep blush on the yellow lizard's face, Hope could only assume that they were teasing each other.

The kitchen was as one would expect. The color scheme was mostly reds, oranges, and browns, and she had to wonder if other rooms were like that. Maybe not, as the house was a combination of hers and the brothers' interests. A rack was above the counter with pans hanging, and two empty hooks for where the mitts were to go. The line of shelves underneath most likely held more cooking wares. _All of the other normal stuff for cooking is here too. Makes sense. You can't really do much without a stove, oven, sink, and fridge._ "HELLO, EVERYBODY!" Sans and Hope jumped at Papyrus' loud introduction, almost forgetting he was that close behind. "I HAVE RETURNED WITH SANS AND OUR NEW FRIEND!"

"Our new friend?" Toriel repeated after sitting it down on the stove top. "May I ask Papyrus who you are…?" Toriel froze as she turned to face them. The strange human that Sans had introduced to them a while ago was standing in front of her, in person, hand in hand with him. She raised her other hand, and gave a shy wave.

"Hello, Toriel," Hope quietly greeted. "It's nice to finally meet you.. Well, in person that is."

"I-it worked!" Alphys cried out from the table. She rushed over to Hope, checking the human for any irregularities. "I-I can't believe it! The chances of this actually functioning were… were next to zero! H-how do you feel, Hope?" She looked up at her after stopping in front of Hope. "Any trouble breathing? Difficult hearing and seeing? Weak limbs?"

"I'm fine, Alphys. Vision was a little off when I woke up, but that was just due to the machine and having my molecules ripped apart and altered," Hope shrugged. _That was a weird sentence in itself._ "I, uh, just can't believe it worked myself. Sans is pretty amazing to build that thing." She looked down at the skeleton, smiling. "I would never have been able to figure something out like that in a million years."

Hope smirked at the blue blush on his face, and Sans darted his eyes away from her. _What, is he not used to getting compliments like that?_ "uh, hehehe, thanks kid." Undyne walked up to her, joining her girlfriend and Alphys backed up beside the intimidating woman. Hope felt Sans' grip increase, and she wondered if that was to reassure her. Because looking at the captain of the Royal Guard in person, she felt truly terrified. "undyne."

Undyne nodded at Sans, not bothering to address him, and crossed her arms over her chest. She glared at Hope, and the girl flinched backwards. __Is she… sizing me up?__ It seemed like it. The woman was probably doing it to see if she wasn't going to harm anyone. __As if I have the strength to attack anybody.__ Nodding to herself, Undyne stuck at her hand. "Nice to meet you, punk."

Glancing from the scaly blue hand to Sans, Hope went and reached out for it. __Oh__ _ _man__ _ _, that's a tight grip!__ Undyne might not have meant to hurt her, but the fish's grip felt as if all of her bones were going to shatter like toothpicks. "Y-you too…!" She squeaked.

Giving a fanged grin, Undyne let go, and Hope released her other hand from Sans' to cradle the injured one. Toriel and Frisk walked up to them, and the goat lady smiled gently down at her. The human was still nervous around them, but not for the reason she would've thought. Unlike the people she passed on the street, this was for a reason she still had trouble understanding. "It is wonderful to meet you, my child. I am sorry for my previous reaction. I did not expect for you to be here."

"It's alright, Toriel. Neither did I." Hope looked down at Frisk, and smiled. The only other human beside her hid in Toriel's robe, peeking out at her. She never really did get a good look at them during their chat. They looked almost exactly like the game, except for the fact they didn't have yellow skin. Which… made perfect sense. Their eyes were narrow and a dark brown, and they had short mossy brown hair that fell to their shoulders. A massive light blue sweater with two purple stripes hid their small body, falling just past their waist. A pair of torn jean shorts and brown hiking boots completed the look, with the boots possibly being because they were hiking the mountain before their journey began. _I wonder if they have any other footwear?_

That… was something she might want to talk to them about later. Much, much later. Besides hers and Sans' mission to trying to figure out the code and Gaster, she did wonder… why was Frisk on the mountain? What was their side of the story? She could ask sooner, but it didn't seem… right. After all they had learned already, asking such a personal question would put Frisk into an even more uncomfortable spot.

 _Now, to open up the child's defenses._ "Hey, kid." Hope knelt down, placing her hands on her knees. "No need to be afraid of me. I don't bite. I gum." She rolled her lips over her teeth, and closed and opened her mouth as wide as it could go while making odd chewing noises. "Om! Nom! Nom!"

Frisk giggled behind their hands, and let go of Toriel's dress. They walked closer to her, and held out their own hand. "Hehehe. It's nice to meet you too, Hope." Hope giggled, and brought the younger child into her arms. Frisk squirmed, not expecting the hug, but relaxed into it. Hope ruffled the top of their head, smiling.

"There we go. That's better." Hope stood back up, brushing a lock of hair out of her face. "Sans?" He perked up, and turned from looking in approval at Frisk to her curiously. "Is it wrong I feel like I'm in some sort of dream right now?"

"what do ya mean, kid?" Sans asked. Why did she think that?

"It's just, it's sort of… surreal. I never would have guessed in a million years that I would have met a skeleton from a dimension that played as a video game in our own. Never would have believed I'd end up as data, to be transported across time and space to meet said skeleton." Hope gave a laugh and leaned against the arch doorway, eyes closed in pleasant thought. "It's weird. But it's a nice weird."

"IT IS A NICE WEIRD, HOPE," Papyrus agreed. " HOW LONG IS SANS HAVING YOU STAY WITH US?"

"only for five days, paps," Sans spoke up. "she has her final school activities before she's done for the summer. she'll be helping me with my project while she's here."

"He's right. There's two reasons why he went through with the pain and confusion of building that glass tank in the basement." Hope held up one finger. "One: only I can help with his research." She help up a second finger. "Two: I'm his new friend." She paused, and looked down at Sans anxiously. "That's right, isn't it?" __I am your friend, right?__

"that's right, kiddo. spot on." He gave a relaxed grin, bobbing his head in agreement. It was one thing to have another friend, but it was another to have one so willing to help in his complicated search for Gaster.

"W-well, I hope y-you two will figure out wh-what you're looking for," Alphys smiled.

"Yeah!" Undyne shouted. She wrapped an arm around Alphys, pinning the woman to her side. "You dorks will figure whatever it is out! C'mon, Alphys," she laughed. "Let's go home!" She ran out of the room, ignoring Alphys' cries as she was carried out of the house under Undyne's arm.

"They live together?" Hope asked, looking at Toriel.

The ex queen nodded. "They have chosen to live together since they had left the Underground. Most humans are not as welcoming to the monster population, so some have chosen to live together due to a lack of available housing."

"But… but you, Frisk, Sans, and Papyrus have a huge house," Hope frowned. "How did you guys afford this?"

"there's a reason why we're all living together, hope." She looked down at Sans. "we can afford this house because since tori here was one half of the monarchy, she had enough gold to purchase it. asgore has a home a little smaller because he's living by himself. he's only a few doors down from here." Sans' grin tensed, and Hope could tell he was uncomfortable. "the fact us monsters used gold as our currency allowed us to purchase suitable homes, and frisk here's been a great ambassador, but there's still prejudice against us monsters. some places 'round here still won't sell to us, and limit our options."

"You guys live together due to… that's-that's cruel!" Hope shouted, taken aback by the explanation. "Why would they do that?"

"not all pacifist endings are perfect, kid." She blinked, and looked down at Sans with the same shocked look she had developed hearing his clarification. __did-did I not say that quietly enough? dang it.__ He meant to have mumbled that under his breath, but the teen's ears had picked up his words. "not all humans take kindly to things they don't understand."

"I'd like to have a few choice words with them," she muttered. She didn't expect to hear that sort of news when she arrived, and it definitely changed her view that the pacifist timelines were not always so straightforward and easy. _Those ends credits made it seem amazing._ But it was a game, and this, this was reality. _And reality can be a real pain sometimes, sadly._

"We are sorry, my child." She glanced up at Toriel, and felt her rest a large paw on her shoulder. "We did not wish to upset you with this knowledge."

"It's alright, Toriel. I guess I already knew that things were going to operate differently in this world than my own." With the fact she was going to be living in a city with a monster-human population, she knew that the rules and customs would be different.

Toriel laughed softly, and took Hope's hand. The talk still hung in the air, but the woman decided to try and brighten it. "Why don't you have a seat, Hope." She guided the human to the dining table, and then walked over to the kitchen counter. "Would you like a slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie?"

"Yes please, Toriel," Hope said, and sat down in a chair. Papyrus and Sans walked over to her, and sat down on either side of her. Frisk ran up to the fridge, and pulled out a jug of milk. Hope smiled as the kid somewhat clumsily poured several glasses, and brought them over to them. "Thanks, Frisk."

"Here you go." Toriel placed the plates on the table in front of each of them, along with a fork nestled on the side of the pie. Hope could see the slight bit of heat drift up from the pie, and she finally realized how hungry she was. Picking up the utensil, she stabbed the pie, and brought the custard filling to her mouth. __Oh my… this is amazing!__ It was like her taste buds exploded in a flavor bomb. "Do you like it, Hope?"

 _Like it?_ She looked around her, and at the smiling faces of the three monsters and young child. Sans' grin though… ever since they first met, Hope had never seen him so happy. "I love it, Toriel. Hehehe. I love it."

* * *

 ** **So, we have reached the beginning of my little hiatus. I won't be returning until August, so once I get back to my laptop, I'll post as fast as I can. Luckily, I'm not leaving anyone on a cliffhanger here. I do that enough with my other stories.****

 ** **Thanks everyone to checking out the story so far. How odd that it has gained a faster audience that my old Undertale one. I guess with a unique story idea, comes lots of interest.****

 ** **Anyways, I hope everyone has a great summer. Drink lemonade, roast marshmallows, swim, do anything. As long as you're having fun, doesn't really matter what you do. As long as it's legal!****

 ** **Welp, I've bored you all enough. Time to watch tonight's fireworks and pack my bags!****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	11. Examining HOPE

****Disclaimer: Hiatus. Is. Over! Here I am, with the long awaited update!****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: Don't worry! I'm back, with a new chapter that I've been planning for weeks!****

 ** **TravisUmbra: Yeah, no kidding. Who says they don't already know about the murders?****

 ** **pandaxoom: Why, thank you.****

 ** **xpricefieldx: Well, something like that happens. Just picture this: a girl has had her body structure altered in order to travel through the void. Do you think that it is a process that goes without consequences?****

 ** **7sky: WOOO!****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Thank you. Hers and Sans' search for Gaster will be coming up soon, so just be patient.****

 ** **Pika5490: Fixed! And I hope you're happy for the ending of the break!****

 ** **Now that the reviews are over... let's do this thing! I own Hope, not Undertale.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 **Edited: Sept. 15/18**

* * *

"That was delicious, Toriel," Hope thanked the older woman, bowing her head slightly. _I know I don't need to, but I can't stop thinking of her as royalty._ "I've never had pie that amazing before. Usually we just buy it from the store." Her mom, while she could cook, wasn't so great at baking. One could only set of the smoke alarm so many times before having to stop.

Toriel laughed, and took the dirty plates from her hands. The two had finished a conversation about how Frisk's life had progressed since returning to the surface. They had been going to the school shown at the end of the pacifist run, with Toriel as a teacher there. Asgore was the groundskeeper, keeping his eye on their savior during recess and lunch. According to her discussions with the other teachers, the flowers that grew around the front of the school had never been more beautiful. The adults of the surface found it odd how Frisk, a child, was the monster ambassador. Despite being human, they could relate with the monsters in a way that no one else would ever be able to do. Hope was amazed by her story, listening to Toriel as she helped wash the plates from the group's treat. _Speaking of Frisk…_

Papyrus and Frisk had gone out to the living room to play video games, demonstrated by the younger skeleton's eager shouting echoing down the hall and the sound of video game combat. Sans however, remained sitting at the table. He watched Hope with fascination, keeping silent during their talk. How odd that this girl, who had only ever saw them as characters less than a month ago, would be treating them all as if she'd known them all for years. "Thank you, Hope," Toriel smiled. "I am glad you enjoyed it."

"one of your better pies, tori." Sans stood up from his seat, stuffing his hands in his hoodie. "if you two don't mind, i need to borrow hope for a while." Seeing the confused looks on the two women, he continued, "i need to check hope over for any anomalies or problems. just because we don't see any with our eyes, doesn't mean there aren't any there."

Hope nodded, agreeing with that idea. While she did feel alright, that didn't mean there wasn't irregularities in her rebuilt DNA. Who knows what the void did to her as Sans pulled her through it. "Okay, Sans." Hope sat the last plate in the sink, and dried her hands on the dish towel hanging on one of the lower cupboard's handles. The two headed out of the kitchen, but she paused to grin back at Toriel. "Bye, Toriel!"

Toriel laughed again, and waved her goodbye. "Have fun, Hope. It was nice to see you again." Smiling, Hope followed Sans as he led her up to the second floor, seeing the color scheme from downstairs continued on up there. Glancing at the large framed picture of a bone on the wall, she shook her head fondly. __Heh. A classic.__ "So, I thought we were going back down to your lab, Sans?" It was a reasonable question. Didn't the short monster have the equipment where the machine was?

"nah, kiddo." Sans stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall, smirking back at her. He pulled a key from his shorts pocket, and unlocked it. "figured this would be the only other place in this house that no one can get into. while the lab does have a spare key, this room has only one, and i have it." He opened the door, allowing Hope to enter behind him. He locked it behind her, and Hope glanced around her. The bed was still unmade, except the sheets were not tucked into a greasy ball at the foot of the mattress. An actual light bulb was in the lamp on the dresser, and unlike what she saw in the game, there was no treadmill in the middle of the room. "what do you think?" Sans asked, curious as to what her reaction would be. Hope had remained mostly silent throughout the whole ordeal of her first few hours, except for the few questions she had asked Toriel and answering anything asked to her. It may not have been the shock, as he had first guessed. She seemed to have gotten used to everything and everyone. It might just be her brain trying to understand it all; how different this was compared to what she thought she knew. But no matter what it was, she listened with full attention to everything she heard.

"It's… it's exactly what I thought it'd be," Hope answered. She raised a brow at the trash tornado in the corner beside her, and turned back to the skeleton. _I'm not gonna bother asking how that even works._ "Sans?" He looked up at her for a moment, shuffling through one of the dresser.

"take a seat on the bed, hope. we gotta check to make sure your systems are working properly." He stood back up, holding a stethoscope, and nodded thoughtfully. _this should work._ "need to see if anything is wrong with your heart."

"My heart?" Hope repeated carefully. "What's wrong with my heart?" Sans walked back to her, a role of clear tape in his other hand.

"nothing to worry 'bout, kid. but like i said earlier, we don't know if you reformed without any malformations," Sans admitted. "it's just a precaution." Hope giggled at the sight of Sans taping the ear pieces to the sides of his skull, more than likely where his ears would have been. "this might be a little cold."

Cold it was. She was thankful Sans let her put the equipment under her shirt in the front. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but… he was a guy… and she was a girl. __Don't care if he's__ _ _not human__ _ _.__ _ _He's still a guy.__ _ _It's still weird.__ Hope knew Sans wouldn't do anything like that, but she still felt uncomfortable. He moved the stethoscope over different spots on her back, before chuckling. "welp, it looks like everything's in order." He pulled the tape from his head, and patted her on the shoulder. "you're clear. for now, at least. in the morning, we'll do some more checks, little more in-depth than this."

"Well, that's a relief," Hope said, pulling her tank top back down in the back. "What's next, bone boy?"

Bone boy. Sans felt his soul soar at the teasing and lovable nickname. Frisk was friends with everybody they met, but didn't give any names to them like that. But Hope? Hope and him had talked about stuff that he never told anyone else, leading to their friendship being stronger than possibly his and Frisk's, only because of how much they had in common. Hope helped him in his search for answers, when he was scared to tell even his own brother. Two vastly different people from different dimensions, but somehow fit together almost perfectly. _of course, what pair doesn't have rough edges?_ So, she wanted to know what was next. "something that i've been wanting to try since we first met, and have been trying to figure out through our chats."

Before Hope could react, she felt a tugging inside her chest. Maybe not so much as a tugging, as it was feeling like a suction cup was placed on her chest and was trying to pull something out. It felt… weird. Not exactly painful, but not entirely comfortable either. Sans' hand was resting on her shoulder, sockets closed as he focused. "Sa-whoa." Hope lowered her eyes to her chest, watching a light green glow emit from within her, and a ****heart**** drifted out of her. An actual cartoon heart. No aorta or four chambers, but one you would normally see on Valentine's Day. The glow followed after it, and Hope stared in wonder at the bobbing heart. "Sans?" She asked breathlessly. "Is that…?"

"meet your soul, hope." Sans laughed. Her reaction was one he hadn't seen before. Usually, the humans he came across would try to figure out how that worked; having their soul come out of their body. They'd act curious, suspicious; any, many different emotions. Hope, however, had the look of a child at Christmas. Her face was filled with wonder and happiness. __but… why is she so happy?__

"Wow," Hope murmured. She reached out, and the heart drifted over to her awaiting hand. Giggling, she let the soul move from one hand to another, the tail end of the green glow trailing behind as Sans let his own hand fall from her shoulder. "This is incredible, Sans."

"really?" Usually, seeing a soul wasn't that big of a deal. Well, for the few humans he had seen Underground that is. Anyone on the surface probably didn't even believe monsters were capable of doing that; summoning someone's soul out of their body. "i didn't think you'd have this reaction to seeing it. you knew you had a soul, right?" He asked, sitting down beside her on the bed.

"I did, yeah, but… but I never really gave much thought to it," Hope grinned. "Never thought I'd see it in person. I suppose it would make sense though. Everyone has a soul, but you're unable to actually see it where I'm from." She paused, putting her free hand to her chin as the other held the heart. "Maybe it's because we had no need to really see them and use them." Hope turned back to the green essence, the warmth radiated her palm. "Our souls are our memories; our wishes, dreams, and everything in between. All I am, is what this heart is."

"hehe." She nailed it dead on. "exactly, hope. not many people would have gotten that on the first try." Sans reached up to his own chest, and Hope blinked as he brought out a white heart. __Is that… yellow and blue?__ Hope stared at the faint color in the soul, the lines chasing around the heart brightened and altered the pale glow. "justice and patience, kiddo. that's what i specialize in." He brought the soul back up to him, and sighed as it melted into his covered rib cage. "all monsters are made of every trait, but certain ones are able to focus on one or two of those qualities."

"That explains why your eye flashes yellow and blue in battle, and blue when you're angry or upset." She always had a feeling it had to do with emotions. But Sans had also admitted that he used his magic for random things like eating ketchup. Which, still didn't make any sense. "Green, huh?" She brought the soul back into her, feeling the same warmth from her hand fade away. A chuckle escaped her lips, and she smiled back at Sans. Despite his shorter size, they were eye level on the bed, being able to look each other eye to eye socket. "For some reason, kindness doesn't surprise me."

"it was hard to really assume what your trait was, bud. can't do much through a computer screen." Sans brought his arms up behind his skull, and flopped back on his bed. He lazily looked up at Hope, earning a small laugh. "relax, kiddo. you've been through a lot today."

Shrugging, Hope dropped beside him. Sans was just far up the bed to the point where her head was positioned by his shoulders, letting her legs almost dangle off the bed and feet to touch the floor. The two smiled, before turning to stare up at the ceiling in silence. __I wonder…__ Hope bit her lip, squirming uncomfortably. __If Sans was able to see my soul, then… doesn't that mean he could see my LV?__ "Sans?"

"yeah, hope?" Sans asked, his pupils shining. __Weird. His sockets really do express a lot,__ Hope noted. __Even without being able to open his mouth or have the use of eyebrows.__

"What's my… LV?" She asked, trying to hold back any nervousness at the question. "N-not that I think it's high or anything! But… but could you tell me?"

"don't worry, hope," Sans said. His socket glowed blue for a moment, and Hope watched him flick his wrist. Immediately, the room plunged into darkness. The only light now came from his face, and the magic still active at his disposal. "level three, kid. i didn't expect you to be perfect, but with your age and personality, it makes sense." His magic faded out, and he moved an arm out from under his head. Hope tensed as it slid around her upper back, and felt Sans pull her closer to him, her face now pressed against his chest. "get some rest, hope. we've got a busy day tomorrow."

Hope blinked at him, feeling the bones shift around her. Why Sans did that, she didn't know. But… it was sweet of him to do so. Humming, she inched closer, breathing into his hoodie… and gagged quietly. __Ketchup. Why is it always ketchup?__ "Ugh. Night, bone boy."

"night hope," he grinned tiredly. "see you in the mornin'." He felt the girl's breathing didn't slow down unlike his own, and guessed he was going to be the first to fall asleep. _no problem there, i suppose. just hope this trip will benefit both of-_

"... I have problems being close to people."

 _… what?_ Sans' sockets flew open, hearing the tired but very clear line come from the girl. _i-i'm sorry, problems?_ "hope?"

Her eyes were still closed, but her face was twisted. "I… it was years ago. I was thirteen, a few years older than Frisk, and… everything was great. Mom and dad loved me, and we did stuff together. But then… he left." He could see her eyes were tightly closed, holding back tears. "He left, and we… we don't know why. We were all so happy, and he loved me, and… I didn't know why. Was it an affair with someone? Did he not love mom anymore? W-was it… was it me?"

Sans remained silent, watching the girl. How was he supposed to react? _no wonder she didn't want to talk about her dad. is she only saying this now because of what i told her?_ "Mom had to work more to support us, and I learned to grow up quickly after that. I-I didn't have time for much activities with friends, because I was always-I feared being left alone. I-I didn't want people I started to care about to leave me, like… like he did." Her eyes finally opened, and she lifted her face enough from the hoodie to look up at him. "Sans… you were the first real friend I've had in years. Ever since he… I feared getting close. I-I don't want to be abandoned, so I just… stopped associating with others. It's why I was so focused on school instead of hanging out with people. wh-why I almost debated not coming on this trip, in fear of leaving my mother alone in case something did go wrong. Why every time someone tried to ask me about him, I-I just… clammed up and stopped talking. Yelling just… Sans, why do you think I logged off after our fight?"

"… hope. you… kid, you didn't have to tell me." She didn't. She really, really didn't. Compared to what happened with Gaster, it was the resets that destroyed him. He was indeed trying to bring his own father back, but he wasn't like… how was she able to handle that?

"I had to... you're my friend. I-I couldn't keep this locked away. Not... not anymore." As soon as she said that, with the last word filled with tiredness, her face was once again pressed against his hoodie. It didn't look like she would be speaking anymore today, and he also wondered if she would even remember what she had said in the morning. But even so, he felt… thankful she told him the truth. It had hurt her, but in her exhausted state from being pulled to his dimension, she might not have been aware of her words. Even though, if she didn't remember, he would.

 _i'll remember._ "sleep, kiddo. nothing's going to happen to you anymore." He promised that, when he revealed the truth about his own pain. That applied to this now too, and possibly anything else they would reveal to each other. He wouldn't let her suffer like this, and while it looked lik _e_ it would be something that would haunt her, he would try his hardest to help her move past it. __she did it with me, right? i'll try and return that favor.__

* * *

 ** **It's short, I know. But I didn't have much time to write this out.**** ** **Even with the editing done now, it's still the second shortest chapter.**** ** **It'll be a much**** ** **longer**** ** **chapter next week.****

 ** **For anyone joining us, the new part at the end was to be stretched out, but that wasn't possible with only five chapters left including the epilogue.****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	12. HOPE's Second Day

****Disclaimer: Update! Here, right now, just for you!****

 ** **TravisUmbra: I missed all of you! Let's hold of on the Sans hating for now, shall we? You can do that later on.****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: Thanks! Glad you're happy with this little chapter.****

 ** **MemorySteel: Thank you! I don't judge on what and how people write. All it takes is a good and creative idea, and you can do anything.****

 ** **AGirl: Thanks! (Hugs back)****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: It's nice to be back.****

 ** **Andonexus KotD: Oh, imagine his confusion if she started humming track 15.****

 ** **Catslock: It does, thank you.****

 ** **pandaxoom: You're welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying it!****

 ** **I only own Hope.****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Edited: Apr. 27/19****

* * *

"hope. pssst, hope. time to wake up, kiddo." Sans chuckled, watching the girl roll over in her sleep, nuzzling her face into his hoodie once again. He wasn't going to get anything accomplished today if she didn't get moving. True, he was usually the lazy bones, but it was almost noon-no, it was past noon, actually. She did fall asleep early last night, but that was to be expected from the process to get her there. Her energy was completely zapped. He, well… he only fell asleep because he wanted to. __and i couldn't leave her alone after… that.__ "it's mornin', kid. you need to get up."

"F-five more minutes, Sans," she mumbled, half asleep. "No wake up. Never. Let me sleep forever." The short choppy sentences earned another round of chuckles from the short skeleton. Deciding that was enough avoidance, he slid his hand under her head, and gently lifted her off of him. Once she was settled on the bed and not on his rib cage, he sat back up.

"nope. sorry, hope. but we got a lot to get done today, and you lazing around won't get that accomplished." Hope gave a tired giggle, before slowly opening one eye. The blue pupil stared at him, not showing signs of any tiredness. "well?"

"But you always laze the days away!" She complained, stressing the 'always'. "Why's it different if I do it?"

"nope." He grabbed her shoulders, and sitting her upright so she could see the smug look. "there ya go. that's better."

Hope blew a strand of brown hair out of her face, and stuck her tongue out at him. "You're mean, you know that?" Sans let her go, holding his hands up in surrender. "I couldn't sleep any longer?"

"it's past noon, hope. you missed breakfast; by association, so did i. so, how 'bout i take you out for a late lunch, huh? you wanna try grillby's?" __Grillby's?__ Hope ran the name through her head, and smiled. Burgers sounded pretty good right now. But was there really a restaurant up there on the surface? __Of course there is, you goof. He wouldn't just abandon his business when they all moved upstairs.__ "i take that look as a yes," Sans said.

"You bet that's a yes," Hope laughed. She jumped off the bed, standing up next to him. "I've always wanted to try out Grillby's. What's he like?"

Sans unlocked the door, and he motioned for her to follow. __eh, she can change her clothes later.__ So could he. When the young adult came flying out of the machine, and materialized in front of him, her bag was lying in a heap by her feet. In all of the commotion, she had forgotten about it. "grillby? he's a good pal of mine. doesn't talk much, but i doubt you'd be able to understand him anyway."

"Why's that?" Hope asked. They walked down the stairs, and headed towards the front door. He paused to fish out a set of keys from his hoodie, and she caught a glimpse of them in the skeletal hand. Unlike the lab and bedroom keys, these looked more like… "car keys?"

"you really thought we'd walk there?" Sans asked. They stepped outside, and he headed towards the other side of the house. __What is he going… oh. OH!__ The minibike. _ _How could I have forgotten that?__ A bright green bike sat next to a brown station wagon and a red sports car. Easily guessing which vehicle belonged to who, she walked over to the motorcycle and ran a hand over the leather seat. "you ever ride before?"

"No. This, uh, is my first time on a bike like this," Hope confessed. "I bike a little, but never rid anything powered by a motor. Is it safe?" Sans smirked, and pulled a helmet off one of the shelves lining the garage. He always had a spare, in case Frisk wanted to ride with him. It might be a little smaller for her, but it should work. __just hope she's fine with purple.__

"only if you're riding with a professional, kid." Hope took the helmet from him, and placed it on her head. __Yep, this is a little snug.__ Snapping the straps under her chin, she sat behind Sans on the bike. "as for your earlier question about grillby… he speaks in a way only monsters can understand. crackling flames, certain gestures; things like those are what we look for. i'm one of the best for understanding him, but the rest of the regulars are good too."

"Huh. Cool." Hope rested her legs behind his on the foot rests, nervously watching him put the key in the ignition. "Um, Sans? Wha-what do I hold onto?" Sans chuckled, and reached a hand behind him. "Whoa!" She felt the monster yank her forward, until her arms were around his chest.

"just hold tight, hope. and try to keep your eyes open." He turned the keys, and rolled down the driveway. The moment he got onto the main road though, Sans picked up the speed, earning a small cry from the young adult. "you okay?"

"Aahhh!" Hope squealed. "Ah ha ha! This is crazy!" Her loose hair that wasn't stuck under her helmet continuously whacking the glass that went down in front of her eyes. "How am I supposed to open my eyes!?"

"the wind isn't hitting your face, kid. i've had enough practice driving this to know how not to crash. trust me, i'm not gonna let you fall off," he said over his shoulder. They weren't even going that fast. The speed limit was only 50. With this being her first time on a minibike though, he wanted to assure her as much as he could.

Hope shuddered in fear, before slowly opening her eyes. Houses flew past her on either side of them; trees, people, all a blur. "Heh… hehe… ha ha ha!" She laughed, and readjusted herself on the seat. The feeling of the air blew through her, as she hadn't a jacket like Sans. But the sensation of zooming along felt amazing. __Wonder what it'd be like if he had an actual motorcycle.__ Resting her chin on Sans' shoulder, she looked at where they were headed. The two were heading deeper into the city, and the simple houses soon changed into tall skyscrapers and businesses. Bratty and Catty were walking out of a convenience store, bags in hand and appeared to be eagerly chatting about their own business plans. She spotted Burgerpants in a store with a huge Mettaton logo on the front, serving customers. __Glamburger, if I had to guess.__ But besides them, she didn't see that many other monsters wandering around and enjoying their day. Napstablook, Mettaton himself… Hope could only guess that the two were together. After all, they were cousins. And after spotting a poster of the two, along with Shyren about a musical, that theory appeared to be right on the money. But besides the occasional Froggit and other regular everyday monster, no one else was out here.

Asgore though, she wouldn't mind seeing him at some point. With how interesting Toriel's stories were, his would be just as captivating. "Are we almost there, Sans?" Hope asked, feeling him begin to slow down. Sans pulled over into a parking spot on the side of the road, and put down the kick stand.

"yep. c'mon, kiddo." She undid the helmet, and tucked it under her arm. Sliding the keys into his pocket after locking it, Sans led her down the busy street. Hope grinned at his excitement, seeing him head off towards the restaurant. Sans may have done this to help get answers, bringing her into his world… or it was just an extreme attempt for him to finally see her in person. Heck if she knew, but she was leaning much more to the second one. __But then again-what was with all these looks?__

Most children they passed seemed intrigued by them; a human only several years older than themselves walking side by side with a monster without a care in the world. They would giggle, and wave while giving happy and cheerful smiles. The adults on the other hand almost made Hope flinch. It wasn't all of them, but the few Sans and her had passed had given them dirty looks. Disappointed frowns, glares, and one had muttered something under his breath that he couldn't pick up. Sans, sensing her nervousness, grabbed her hand protectively. __she has no need to be on this end of the treatment,__ he internally growled, before sighing as their destination came into view. __finally.__

He swung open the door for her as it came up on their left, letting Hope escape from the outside and into the bar. The smell of monster alcohol and greasy food hit him, easing his nonexistent nerves. "hey, everybody," he greeted the patrons. The monsters all turned to look at him, and grinned. Sans always had a way of brightening the atmosphere at New-Grillby's. Either with his carefree attitude, or the jokes he used on special event nights. The flame monster had designed the place to look exactly like his old business, except the music player in the corner now worked, there was more seating, and the place itself was much cleaner. The lights were partially dimmed, but Grillby never did like keeping everything bright. It was easier on their eyes. The patrons shouted their own greetings, until they saw that the skeleton hadn't come alone this time around.

 _ _So, this must be the human Sans had talked about.__ Grillby looked up from his shot glass, as the two settled down at the bar in front of him. She wasn't like the usual human he brought here, he noticed, but he could see some of their savior's personality in her eyes. Not being one of many words, Grillby was exceptionally good at observing people. From just a glance, he could tell that she still had the same sense of adventure as young Frisk, but was more reserved about it. Polite, but not afraid to stand up for herself. __Hmm. I can see why Sans has brought her along,__ he mused. _Just like the other human._

"heya, grillby," Sans chuckled. "usual for me. what 'bout you, kid?" Hope looked above her head, running the menu options over. __Well, I'm certainly happy there's more of an option than just a burger and fries.__

"I'll have one burger and a glass of water, please," Hope smiled at the elemental. Sans was right. He was quiet. __I'm fine with that.__ "It's nice to meet you, Grillby."

Grillby nodded, and turned to Sans. His flames crackled as he spoke to Sans, earning a small laugh from the shorter monster. "yeah, i'd have a feeling you'd like her." Hope watched their exchange curiously, before Grillby cast one last look at her and headed back into the kitchen.

"What did he say?" She asked. It's a weird thing. Just like having someone talk to someone else in front of you in a different language, she couldn't make heads or tails of what they were talking about. The only difference is that it was one-sided on her part. Sans spoke English, Grillby spoke… something else.

"that you're one of the nicer humans he's seen in a while," he said truthfully. "you, uh, saw how those humans outside reacted to us, right?" She did, and she didn't like it one bit. Hope hated it when people were treated differently. While that wasn't entirely the case for Sans and the rest of them, they experienced stuff like that on a daily basis. Just like Frisk-or at least she assumed it happened to Frisk-she had received the same reaction. All because she was hanging out with Sans, who wasn't human. "sorry, hope. you didn't deserve any of that." He had only ever seen her so scared once before, when he had snapped at her for assuming she knew everything about him. While those people didn't threaten them, their silent glares and visibly trying to avoid them did enough. "you're safe in here, kid. not many humans come in here. usually, it's just the kid."

"So I'm another special case in that department?" Hope stated, and smiled bitterly. She hoped it wouldn't always be like this for them. But the most she could do was possibly help bring Gaster back, and stop the resets. She didn't see any way to help improve social conditions. "I wish I could help, Sans."

"i know, hope. but this is one thing you can't fix," he replied, his grin strained. "ah! here comes the grub." Grillby settled down a plate in front of each of them. Hope smiled at the burger, and immediately took a sip from the iced water. Sighing as the cool liquid quenched her thirst, she turned to see Sans take a drink from his ketchup bottle. A burger and a side of fries were in front of him, making her raise her brow. She still hadn't come up with an answer as to how he could eat. She did see him eat Toriel's pie, but… how!? How!? "looks good, grillby. what do you think, hope?"

Hope picked up the burger, watching a dribble of grease come out as she made sure the patty wouldn't slide when she bit into it. Taking a bite, her eyes widened in surprise. __I… I have tasted amazing in burger form.__ She quickly swallowed, and grinned at him. "It's delicious, Grillby." Grillby's flames flickered purple for a second, and the crackling sound increased. He was… laughing?

The girl's reaction was one he hadn't seen before. He knew that the food he served was good, but he never got this before. __The girl has good taste too.__ "he's glad you think so," Sans summarized for her. He hadn't seen the bartender this amused in ages. "thanks, grillby." Grillby nodded, and went back across the bar to continue the glass he left when the two entered. "dig in, hope. don't want the food getting cold." The two laughed, and finally began to eat.

Savoring each bite, Hope let her mind wander. Despite the rough treatment of several bystanders, there wasn't anything off about her time here. The monsters treated her nicely, but there was… something felt weird. She didn't know what it was, but her mind kept replaying her arrival and the events before she fell asleep. __Did I do anything before passing out?__ She didn't know, but she did hope she didn't do anything... anything… o _ _h, did I say that to Sans?__

It was fuzzy, yes, but somewhere in her head, she could've sworn that she said something to him before falling asleep. __I... I said the truth, didn't I?__ Well then, that was… that happened. She glanced over at the skeleton, seeing he was happily enjoying his fries. If she didn't know better, she would've thought everything was normal. But… she told the truth, and he wasn't even asking about it. He was pretending she didn't reveal her most painful secret to him.

 _ _I'm so glad that Sans did that,__ she smiled into her glass as she took another sip, her burger now finished. __He didn't have to do this, or act like that never happened, but he did.__ She sat the glass down, seeing the water ring it made on the wooden counter. __This whole trip has been the__ _ _funnest thing I've done in a… in ages… wh-what the…?__ Her vision clouded for a second, making Hope support her head in her free hand while using the other to grip the edge of the counter. __A dizzy spell…? Odd. I wasn't… getting up quickly…?__ As fast as it came, her sight returned to normal, along with the buzzing in the back of her head. "What was that?" She mumbled quietly, looking down in thought.

"kid?" She blinked, and turned to Sans. He had watched the girl seemingly go into a daze, and watched her normally blue eyes cloud over for a second. __what was that?__ "are you alright, hope?"

Was she? Hope frowned, and shook her head. "No, Sans. I-I'm fine," she reassured him. "Just a dizzy spell. I get them sometimes." But normally, it was when she got up too fast from sitting down. "Weird though. I have no clue what caused it." __that's... worrisome.__ He had checked her over last night, and he didn't see any health problems.

"are you sure you're okay, hope?" Sans repeated. "we can head back to the house now and give you another checkup like i said we would, if you-?"

"No!" Hope exclaimed, before realizing she was raising her voice. She didn't need to attract anyone's attention. "I mean, no," she repeated, more quietly this time. "I'm fine, Sans. There's nothing to worry about. If there is, then you can check it out when we return later." She didn't want to ruin the short amount of time they had together by being checked over like a lab rat. She glanced at their plates, seeing that the food was all gone. "Come on. Let's pay our bill and head out."

"alright, bud. hey, grillby! put it on my tab, will ya?" Sans called over to the elemental. Grillby looked up at him, and Hope could tell by his annoyed expression that this was a regular thing for the skeleton to do. "let's go, kid. there's one last place i wanted to take you before we head back."

"Really?" He held the door up for Hope, and they began walking back towards the moped. "Where is it?" He chuckled at her eagerness, and watched her attach the helmet again.

"somewhere a fair distance out of town. it's a bit of a drive, but you're gonna love it." She definitely would. Most if not all humans were terrified of going there. Even with the truth of the mountain now revealed, it still held ill memories. Hope on the other hand, seemed like she would love it. "hang on." He started up the bike, and they took off down the street once again. The sun had started to sink in the sky, showing how much time they spent in New-Grillby's. With how long they spent eating lunch, it'd be a really late supper when they got back.

He turned off of the main road, and began speeding down a dirt path. "Sans?" She looked around, finding nothing about the forest they were now going through familiar. He began heading uphill, maneuvering through large rocks and massive trees. Sans slowly crept to a stop, and set the bike against a tree. "Where are we?"

"you'll find out soon enough. stupid hill won't let me stand this thing up properly. oh well." They were close enough. With how thick the trees got farther up, there was no way he could drive any farther. "c'mon, pal." Taking her hand in his, he began the painfully familiar hike up the mountain. "has… the game ever shown much of mount ebott?"

"No," Hope answered. "All that's shown is the beginning where Frisk falls into the hole, and when all of you were watching the sunset once you were all freed." A peaceful look spread over her face. "That must be nice." His glowing pupils hovered on her for a second, making sure he didn't trip by mistake on a rock or root. "No matter how many times it has happened; the feeling of being on the surface… must be nice. Regardless of how the humans acted around you, you guys have the freedom to do so much more than down there."

"yeah. it's, hehe, pretty nice. welp, here we are." He stepped onto the flat ground, the hill leveling out on top. "thought you'd deserve the grand view of what you were working towards." Hope gasped, her hand sliding out of his bony one to cup her mouth in aw. __No way. We're… we're on...__

Mount Ebott. She and Sans were on Mount Ebott. She walked closer to the edge, breathing in the sight below her. The large forest that came right before the city was decorated in the glow of the bright afternoon sun. To the right, the ruins of an old castle from old, with part of a tower still managing to stand after all this time. Where possibly the humans from the war had stayed during the era before the barrier, she assumed. To the left, another smaller mountain. Looking behind her, she saw the cave where every monster had come out of to live down in the city, and how the trail dipped down as it descended deeper and deeper into the ground. __If I were to follow that, I'd end up in the castle.__

Funnily enough, Reunited was playing in her head, and she couldn't help but hum the song to herself. "what're you doin', kid?" Sans watched her hum, slightly bobbing back and forth as she looked out over the landscape. On the outskirts of the city were all of the subdivisions, and the one located closest to the mountain must have been the one the monsters all lived in. The artificial lights of the signs of stores blended with the bright star overhead, which warmed herself and the rocky ledge they were standing on.

"Just… reminiscing old memories." Kneeling down, she sat on the cliff's edge, her legs swinging over the forest far below. "I did this, didn't I, Sans?"

"you did, hope." He sat down beside her, and took hold of her hand. The two smiled, and went back to watching the scenery. "every time i've made it back up here, i knew we wouldn't be here for long. but you, kid? you managed to save us once and for all. with you remaining in contact with us, we won't be forced into a reset. you may not fully understand what this means to us, but thank you." He chuckled, and patted her back. "thank you."

 _ _Oh, I think I know fully well… S-Sans.__ Her vision blurred. Either due to the tears staring to drip down her face, or the buzzing in the back of her head again, she didn't know. __Why… does this keep happening?__ She forced a smile, and propped her head on top of Sans' skull. The buzzing faded as quickly as it came, and she sighed in relief. "You're welcome, bone boy. You're... welcome."

* * *

 ** **After looking at the overall layout for how I want this story to go, I doubt it'd be much longer. Seeing that I'm being thrown into university next week, I'm gonna have a lot on my mind and on the go.****

 ** **Well, my problems aside. I'll see you all next week for the new update!****

 ** **Angel****


	13. HOPE Falters

****Disclaimer: I know, it has been a little while since the update. But I had a family trip that prevented me from typing due to the jump in time zones, and I had moved into university. Plus, the WiFi kept failing. A lot.****

 ** **How about we get right to it, huh?****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: FEEL FEELINGS! Freshman year at high school wasn't so bad for me. I kept close to my friends from junior high, and sailed through. Bad side is that went by too quickly and now I finished high school. O.o****

 ** **AGirl: And there is A LOT that I have to do. I don't procrastinate; that would surely doom me in a few weeks. Thanks for the advice, and I hope you like the new chapter.****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: I thought it was a good way to end the chapter. Poor Hope though. She has no idea what's about to hit her.****

 ** **MemorySteel: Reeeeally? Are you suuurre about that?****

 ** **I only own Hope!****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 **Edited: Sept. 19/18**

* * *

Hope sighed, and ran a hand through her hair. The ride back from Mount Ebott on the bike was quiet, which she was exceedingly thankful for. The reason being was that her head, it… it felt weird. She couldn't tell exactly how, or why, but it just felt… weird. Not like a headache, but something in the back of her mind kept making things seem as if they were slowed down, before speeding up again.

Blinking away another dizzy spell, she sat down in the guest room Toriel had provided for her. Right next to Sans, as always. __Err… this is getting annoying,__ Hope thought, tugging on a strand in front of her face. __What on earth did I do to feel like this? I don't drink, don't do any drugs…__ Hope's face twisted into an amused one. "I'm fairly certain I'm not pregnant." So then, what could it be?

It was day three of her stay with Sans, and she didn't want a silly headache and constant dizzy spells to ruin it. Thank goodness he gave her back her bag from the lab. She really didn't wish to remain in the exact same pair of gray clothes the entire time. As for her hope that the visit will last until the end, she had also began wondering what would happen when she got back. She had faith in the skeleton that he would return her home safely, and if she could make it through, then perhaps… __he could visit me too.__

But that was a thought for another time. A soft knock echoed on the other side of the door, and Hope glanced at it from her bed. The spare bedroom Toriel gave her looked a lot like the goat woman's, only on a smaller scale. Plus instead of a blue color scheme, it was a simple beige. _I love blue, I do, but I can only handle so much of it._ "Hello?"

"hey, kiddo." Sans waltzed in, looking at her in a mix of worry and nervousness. He may have been able to hide his emotions from everyone else, but he could tell the human wasn't fooled. He was concerned though. She kept acting… off. Ever since Grillby's, she seemed to be in a fog. She wasn't all there. That's why he insisted on having them just hang out at the house today.

There was still so many things that he thought Hope would enjoy. Going to the girls' house and joining in on a cooking lesson with Papyrus, going to Mettaton's hotel for dinner before she went home, and paying a visit to Asgore. She probably was leaning more towards the last, since he doubted she'd prefer flaming pasta or his dislike of the robot in question. Going to the hotel meant a larger risk of seeing him. However… now that didn't seem like a good idea.

Was it the portal that's causing this? He needed to run tests, pronto. __but first.__ "how's it goin', hope? you feeling any better?"

"My head's feeling like it's about to split open, and you're asking if I'm feeling better?" Hope snapped, before her face fell. Sans blinked at the harshness, not expecting that intense of a reaction, and she could tell. "Sorry, Sans. I'm just not feeling that great at the moment."

"i can see that." He sat down on the bed next to her, and grabbed her hand. "kid. pal. you gotta be truthful with me, alright? what's bothering you?" Did she want to tell him? No, no she didn't. But judging from how scared he was, and how much he was trying to hide it, she knew it must have been serious. He made a big deal when he checked over her internal organs the moment they returned to the house, but even then he didn't find anything. _what am i missing?_ "hope?"

"I… I don't know, Sans," she carefully admitted. "I felt perfectly fine yesterday, but now? Now I have the worse migraine known to man. Like I'm about to roll over, all because of this buzz in the back of my skull. Not to mention this odd... feeling."

"what feeling?" Sans asked. He fished out a small notebook, and began writing down her symptoms. He doubted Alphys would be of much help. He knew more about the void then anyone else did, so he was stuck on what he knew.

"A weight, like an elephant's foot, sitting on my chest. Right… here." She brought her arm up, and placed her free hand onto her chest, right where her heart was. __her heart?__ That could mean a number of things. Unknown medical problems, heart attack, stroke. __or is it… her soul?__ Worst case scenario, he hoped. Worst case scenario.

"you never had any problems with your health before?" Sans asked. Hope lowered her arm, and shook her head. "alright. kid, can you stand up? we're gonna head down to the lab and run some more tests. c'mere, bud." He grabbed the arm closest to him, and threw it over his shoulders. Pulling her to her feet, he helped her over to the door, opened it, and began heading down the hall.

"Sans? You, uh, know I can walk, right?" Hope asked. Her only response was silence, and he led her down the stairs to the front door. Sans paused, checking the rooms beside him. He didn't need the others finding Hope like this. __clear,__ he grinned. Adjusting his hold, he quietly opened the front door, and walked out.

"i know, kid. but frankly, i don't really trust your legs right now." Hope leaned against the house as Sans pulled the lab key from his hoodie. "i need to run more tests" He brought her into the stairwell, locked it once again, and the two slowly went down the wooden steps to the laboratory. "i knew this was stupid," he mumbled to himself.

How could he have be so ignorant? Of course there would've been problems. He dragged her through the void, for Asgore's sake! She must've suffered some sort of radiation aftereffect, something that he wouldn't have thought to look for at the start. Sitting down the confused human in his chair, he rummaged through the drawers next to the teleporter. Pulling out the large coiled book full of equations he had done to make the video call, the transporter, and rebuild the original machine, he began running through the math in his head, seeing if he made a mistake in building them.

The machine had to be amped up in order for her to pull through, which was a start. A very huge start. During their talk up on the mountain, she had mentioned how drained she had felt coming through the blackness, being tugged along by the code he was dispersing. How empty and cold it was, and the purple lines running along the 'floor' beneath her.

Then… she mentioned the wall.

A wall, that held her back from crossing over. Her mind wasn't entirely working; the magic comprising the dimension affecting her brainwaves, and limiting her senses. Yet, she did say how horrible it was coming in. The pull from the machine had her slamming her into the wall separating his world, and not letting her in.

Sans now could've sworn that the massive burst of static before the rest of her body came from the machine was her screaming.

Could the trouble with her diffusion be because of her form not being able to properly move from one world to another? He didn't know. But right now, he just had to make sure she stayed awake.

A harsh hacking sound came from said teen, and he looked over his shoulder worriedly. Hope's body was bent over, a hand over her mouth as she was hacking raggedly. "oh no." He reached into another drawer, and yanked out a water bottle. __now i know why paps insisted on having this down here.__ Standing up, he moved to Hope and gave her the bottle. Gasping for air, Hope immediately twisted the cap off, and began drinking. "easy, kid. you may want to save some of that for later." Another thing he didn't need was her choking or throwing it up.

"Good… idea!" She put it back down. "Sans, what's going on?" Hope frowned, brows knitted together. "What's happening to me?"

"i, uh…" well, how ****was**** he going to answer this? _h_ _ope, you're possibly having your body shut down on you because of corrupted data that melded into your organic form as_ _i_ _forced you into my dimension?_ "kid, i think that when we brought you here, something… well, it's just a hypothesis as of right now…" he was rambling, he knew it. __you can do this, sans. you can do this.__ "i believe that when you came through the void, some of the data got mixed in with your molecules." Closing his eyes, he took a pained fill breath, and reopened them. Sockets void of light, he locked onto her own scared ones. "your health is failing because i brought you here."

"My… health?" She remembered how terrible it was waking up at first, but she had felt fine afterwards. __Was it prolonged side effects?__ She pondered, starting to look worried. __When I… I hit that wall, it felt like my entire body was on fire. This is… oh. Oh no.__ "Sans, I have to get back. Now." She stressed the word, realizing how urgent it was. H-her life was on the line. Even though he didn't mean it, as it was something neither of them had thought about, the urgency was there. They had to hurry. Right now. _How could we not have seen this sooner!?_

"okay, okay. i'll go tell tori, pap, and frisk that we decided to cut your visit short, and i'll give a quick call to alphys that i'm booting up the machine again." His lights returned to his sockets, but the frown still remained. "you're gonna be fine waitin' down here, right?" Sans let himself check over the girl, and winced. This was his fault. Not hers, despite knowing what she was getting herself into. Both of them knew that something could go wrong, and it had.

"I'll be fine, bone boy," she smiled tiredly. "I'll be waiting." He nodded slowly, still not entirely certain of that answer, and made his way back towards the staircase. Pausing to give one last look at his second favorite human, he went back to the main floor. He would have brought her up with him, but she needed to remain in one place. _i just hope that making these notices now is a good thing._

Hope sighed, and looked around the lab depressed. __Now what do I do?__ Not that she had no problem with waiting. Taking it nice and slow was a good idea. _Sans better grab my bag when he comes back too. Don't need to explain to mom that I lost it._ "Hmmm." Hope looked over at the drawers Sans went through, and rolled over towards them.

"I wonder…" Hope went along the line of unlocked drawers, shuffling through their contents. The ones that were locked were more than likely the prints for the machines, but the open ones had some interesting stuff. Lists of jokes, birthday dates, a schedule for caring for Papyrus which seemed to be from years ago. _Maybe that's for when they were younger?_

That made her smile. But what really caught her interest, was the thing that she saw right before she discovered the code back in her own dimension. Tucked under a photo album with a cover picture of a pure smiling Sans surrounded by his friends, was a scrap piece of paper that appeared to have been torn out from one of his many notebooks. In scratchy childish imagery were Sans and Papyrus, being hugged by… what she assumed to be Gaster himself. The two brothers were much younger, and Sans didn't look that much older than she did. The paper had faint glowing residue around the edges, and while she was guessing, it seemed to be from Sans'… tears.

"Oh, Sa-aargh!" Another round of harsh coughing ripped through her throat, making her lean forward as she tried to settle herself again. It was now or less a cycle; either it began with a round of coughing up her lungs, or she slipped into a brief dizzy spell. This coughing fit though, didn't seem like it was letting up anytime soon. Body feeling weak, she slid off the chair to the tiled floor, paper still clutched tightly in her fist. Resting on her hands and knees, her body was hunched over in pain. __What… what's…?__ Arms giving out, Hope slumped to her side on the ground, eyes clouding over. __Sans… anyone… h-help…!__

* * *

"thanks, al. i'll let her know you said bye." Sans hung up the phone, and wiped the beads of sweat from his brow. He didn't tell all of them why Hope had to go home early. He had only told Alphys, as she was the one to assist him in building the device. She had sounded distressed over the phone, but not as bad as he did. The royal scientist immediately gave her support in the choice of sending her home as fast as possible. Alphys then told him he was wasting his time telling her, when he had a failing Hope in the basement.

He understood the seriousness of the matter, and went straight back to the door leading to his laboratory. "hope?" Sans called as he descended the stairs. Hearing no response, he felt his soul begin to thump in his rib cage. _why isn't she answering?_ "hope!" Silence. "oh no." He ran down the rest of the flight, and slammed to a halt as his slippers hit the ground. "no. no, no, no!"

Hope. His Hope. The girl who had managed to bring life and brightness back into his repetitive life, was now curled up on the floor unconscious. "hope!" He rushed over to her, and rolled her onto her back. Her normally pale skin was even lighter, and felt extremely clammy. He closed his eyes, and quickly scanned her soul. The bright and cheerful green heart was at half of its normal health. __oh god.__ "hope? kid, you gotta wake up, okay? okay!?" He shook her as gently as he could, but the girl remained unresponsive. "h-hope..." Sans looked over her, and leaned back in realization. He needed a healer. H-he needed Toriel. Stat. __w-wait.__ A small scrap of paper stuck out of Hope's hand, and he quickly slid it out of her now relaxed grip. As he undid the crumbled ball, the sight finally let his soul drop, feeling all energy freeze.

 _ _gaster.__ This… this really was all his fault. __this is__ _ _all my fault.__

"t-tori…! t-toriel!" He screamed out her name, and took off running back up the stairs. Slipping as he ran around the corner of the house, and cursing the fact he liked to wear slippers, and sprinted in through the front door. "toriel!" The old queen poked her head out from the kitchen, looking at the distressed skeleton. Panting as he leaned forward, hands on his knees, he looked up at her with frightened glowing pupils. "i-it's hope."

* * *

 _ _Ugh… wh-what happened…? Sans…? He… he came running back, but… wh-where am I now?__ It hurt to open her eyes, that much she understood. But she had to if she wanted to see where she was. __Okay, Hope… s-slow and steady.__ Carefully, she opened her red eyes, having turned so from her hacking… and felt her jaw drop.

"I-I'm in the void!?" But she didn't remember going back through the machine! So then… how did she get there? Drawing her legs to her chest, she sat on the… ground?… and looked around. The floor still pulsed the neon purple lines she saw before, some running right past her, giving the only light in the pitch black.

Hope sighed, and rested her chin on her knees. "Is this a side effect of earlier then? It's like, my body is stuck back in one dimension going through a fit, but my mind is here…."

"Well, my dear, it appears that you are correct in that assumption."

Hope froze, and looked behind her over her shoulder. Who's voice was… that!? _You… you got to be kidding me._

"It is very nice to finally meet you, Hope," Gaster continued, his voice quiet and glitching. "However… the circumstances are not as I had originally imagined. Wouldn't you agree?"

* * *

 ** **This chapter took a long time to write. Sorry about that. I thank you all for being patient, and would like to say that despite the long gaps, this story won't be abandoned.****

 ** **Here's an idea for a future Undertale story if anyone's interested. After a pacifist run, Chara and Frisk talk about what they could do next. After so many resets, Chara had calmed down, and no longer cared for blood thirsty revenge. Now… they're just bored. So Frisk makes the suggestion of fooling around the next timeline. Trolling the monsters, and acting much more differently than normal.****

 ** **Which leads to confusing and annoying the heck out of Flowey/Asriel and Sans.****

 ** **Let me know what you think. Well, until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	14. Sans' HOPE

****Disclaimer: This title sums up this entire chapter. Also, the largest chapter in the story, and the most eventful.****

 ** **DannyPhantom619: Glad you're enjoying the story!****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: Yay Dadster! Save the day! Save Sansy's Hope!****

 ** **AGirl: Glad you like the cliff hanger! The idea for a future Undertale story won't come out for a while, seeing how I'm swamped with school, but you can look forward to it when it does make an appearance.****

 ** **MemorySteel: Yeah, he has survivor's guilt. Hope feels some too, as she knows that she and the other players are responsible for their pain. Hope Gaster has some answers for them.****

 ** **pandaxoom: No code cold. Just void flu.****

 ** **White Wolf Writers: I worked as fast as I could. University got the best of me.****

 ** **I own Hope!****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Edited: Apr. 27/19****

* * *

Gaster. She was looking at W.D. Gaster. __Oh my… it's-I'm not seeing things, am I?__ Mr Wingdings himself, in all his scientific glory.

The monster certainly looked different than the brief glimpse she got in the game, but seemed to mimic what Sans had drawn back in his lab. His cloak was less… gooey than what the fandom had made him out to be, as she had seen some interpretations of him as not having a true physical body. His black cloak fell to his knees, revealing dark gray pants under them, and a light gray turtle neck was visible at the top where it covered his neck. His cracked lines on his skull went from one going upwards on the right eye, to one going downwards on the left. They weren't shattered though, with signs of it being the cause of injuries and having several branching fractures. They were just… there. His brown dress shoes moved closer, and he knelt down in front of the shaking teen, his hand still on her shoulder.

"Are you alright, my dear? You're shaking." Hope nodded mutely, looking at his hand. A perfectly circular hole was cut through the middle. How-why was that? Why did he have holes in his hands? "Good. I am sure you have many questions, but now's not the time to ask them." Gently removing the appendage from her shoulder, he took her skin covered hand pulled her to her feet. "Come. We haven't much time."

He set off across the void, and Hope walked along behind him. She had no choice, really. He didn't seem to be ready to let her go. Gaster seemed to know where he was going, which was more than she could say for herself. She always thought that Gaster would sound and behave really intense, with a nerve wracking voice. Besides the jumbled letters that occasionally slipped in. He sounded almost like an older version of Sans. Not as deep, but close to it.

His white pupils occasionally moved to watch her, checking to see if she was alright. Was she? She had no clue how time flowed through the void. Had she been here for minutes? Hours? Sighing, she dragged her feet, and Gaster came to a stop. "You are wondering what is happening to Sans, aren't you?"

"Y-yeah. How'd you know?" Hope asked. Gaster chuckled, and finally let her go.

"You see these lines that flow through here?" He bent down, and traced a skeletal finger over the purple glowing lines. As they walked, he had taken a path that followed one of them. They all went in the same direction, but he chose to walk right next to one. "These run all throughout the void, feeding code from your dimension to mine. However, if you know the right code…" Gaster gave a playful smirk, as he looked back up at her. "You can see just about anything."

"You've seen the timelines," Hope realized. "You've been watching them; you've been… watching Sans." Of course. Sans and Papyrus had lost their father years ago; when exactly, she never found out. But for Sans to have to grow up, and take care of Papyrus with the knowledge his younger brother wouldn't remember Gaster… it must have killed the monster before her. "If you've been watching the code, then how do you know about me? Does that mean you can see where I came from?"

"To an extent," he admitted. "The code only shows each player who is currently affecting their world. Every once in a while, a certain anomaly manages to catch a glimpse of the void, but it's only for a few seconds."

"Fun value 66," Hope mumbled. If only specific people could affect the timelines, then of course only an even smaller amount would see Gaster for real. "Is that how you ended up finding me? Because I accessed the code?"

"Precisely." She was clever, this human. She paid attention to details and thought things through. It was no wonder why his eldest son was so intrigued with her. "When a player comes through the code, it allows me to read and see all that they've done. Every run they've played either on their own game, or in real life. But when you came through… you were different." Gaster smiled as if it were an old memory, which by now, it was. "You only played to achieve the pacifist ending. You didn't want to play any more than once. You knew what we monsters had gone through, just as every human before you, but you went further than them."

"But Gaster," she spoke up. "There must have been others before me, right? I'm not that special." There must be dozens, if not hundreds, of humans who wanted the same thing. So… why her?

"That may be true, but only a select couple come through. And an even smaller amount find the opening to the void," he explained. Sighing, he smiled sadly. "Before you appeared, Sans had been searching for me for decades. He might not be that old, but the amount of resets… pile up. He always hated himself for how easily I was lost to him and Papyrus. You surely must have noticed how tired he is. From staying up all hours of the night, trying to rebuild my greatest masterpiece, only for a player to cause everything to be reset." It was… horrible, every time he watched it happen. Every time Sans had woken up back in his room, with Papyrus calling for him outside his door, the older brother would break down in tears. He would be so close, and have it slip through his phalanges at the last second.

"But you?" Gaster fully turned to face her, and rested his hands on her shoulders. "You were the exact thing he needed!" A mad glint shone in his sockets, and Hope leaned back nervously. The fandom had either two interpretations of Gaster. One: he was obsessed with breaking down the barrier and returning to his world by any means necessary. Two: he was a complete and utter goof. Right now? It was… more of a medium of the two. Definitely smart, and could be serious and mysterious. But right now… she wasn't sure what to make of him.

"I-I what?" She squeaked. Gaster grinned madly, and let go of her.

"My son needed something, someone, to distract him from his search. He needed something that would change his mission of using the machine in trying to find me." Gaster sighed, and shook his head as he released his grip on her shoulders. "It's never going to work. But when I saw how much you wanted to fix his problem, despite not knowing the whole story, I knew that I had to alter the code."

"Alter the… code! IT WAS YOU!" She jumped back, pointing at him excitedly. "You were the one who connected Sans and me together through my computer! You were the one who sent me that crazy wingdings message!"

"There we go," Gaster smiled, almost amused by her overreaction. "I am disappointed it took you so long to figure this out. I would have assumed that a fan such as you would have put the pieces together already."

"E-explain! Now!" Hope demanded, still waving her arm around frantically. __Fan!? Screw that, you make it sound like I still see this as a game!__ "H-how on earth did I get the code!? Why didn't you just respond to Sans in the first place!? What-?"

Gaster placed a hand on her mouth, laughing softly at her rapid fire questions. "Are you done?" Hope glared at the elder skeleton, before sighing and nodding. "Good." Removing his hand, he put his hands back into the pockets of his jacket. "As for the two questions you asked, those are somewhat complicated to answer. The code is something that can be directed, and can ping back whatever it contacts with. Sans knew what he was doing in rebuilding my machine from scratch, and but there was a reason as to why I never intercepted his signal."

"Why's that?" Hope sat on the ground, watching him curiously. Gaster smiled, and also got down in front of her.

"Because it wasn't until you began playing that he finally finished it. Do you have any idea how much it hurt, to see your own child waste away over a desperate mission to try and rescue me? I knew I had to do something to save him, to give him hope again after all that he's been through." He sighed, and shook his head pitifully. "When I found you, child, I saw a person who could possibly change him, and had gone through an experience almost similar to his own." __We… were similar, weren't we?__ "How I directed the code was rather simple. Spending so many times in the void lets one… pick up a few abilities," Gaster chuckled. Hope inched back, still wondering about how mentally stable the skeleton was. "Once I made sure that the feed that you would see through your computer was connected to his signal, it all carried out from there."

"I decoded the wingdings, thought it was an Easter egg, and responded to Sans," Hope finished. "After that, it was all about gaining his trust in the world again and making him feel better." She frowned sadly as she realized something. "At first, he despised the anomalies once I explained his dimension verses my own. He hated me for knowing what he didn't. Before we bonded, all he wanted me for was for answers and trying to find out how to bring you home." Her face brightened slowly, and smiled. "But then we began discussing our interests. What we thought about our situation, and that we were almost dependent on each other. He… Sans needs me, Gaster."

"I know, my dear. But returning to him and the others might be more difficult than you imagined." Gaster gestured around him. "You should be wondering how you ended up here, yes? I'm afraid it is because of the unconventional method Sans used to bring you to his dimension."

"What do you mean?" She asked, leaning forward. "I'm not stuck here, am I?"

"I'm afraid it's much worse than that, Hope. You see, the window that separate yours and his worlds is like a one-way mirror. You can get through one way, but entering on the other side is near impossible." That explained why she felt no problem going through the void until she hit the wall. "Sans had to force you through the window. Doing so damaged your organic structure when it reassembled because only part of your body first made it through."

"I… remember," Hope mumbled. "It felt like I was trying to awaken, but I felt something hold me back. Sans must have increased the signal to yank me through." She recalled how it stopped for a moment, and then she felt as if her insides were on fire. "So… the corrupted data is… inside me?"

The silence and look from Gaster was all she needed.

"Oh, Sans." She rested a hand over her chest, feeling her soul thrum weakly under her fingers. __How is he ever going to figure this one out?__ "Please, think of something."

* * *

"c'mon, kid. you gotta wake up."

Sans sighed, and slid a hand over his brow. When he had discovered her, he immediately rushed to Toriel. With her help, they brought her back up to her room, and the goat woman quickly called Undyne and Alphys. Especially Alphys. It was only her and Sans who knew the most about the void and the vague idea about anomalies.

Unfortunately, it proved useless. Without the knowledge Hope knew, Alphys couldn't help. All the scientist could suggest was to try and send her back through the void and return her home. Sans was quick to shoot that down. No way would he send her back unconscious. With how low her health was right now, there was a very strong chance she wouldn't… she wouldn't… survive the trip.

Now, all the big boned skeleton could do was sit beside her and keep her company. She couldn't eat or do anything, so Sans chose to just talk.

"the kid and paps have been worried sick," he continued. "papyrus is being more optimistic than me about you, telling me that you'll wake up anytime now. but… i know better. you'll wake up once your health is restored, when you're not close to…"

Death. His sockets blackened at the word, and he grimaced. Frisk had been at low health many times during their runs, pacifist or otherwise. But this was different. Very different. The void was attacking her cells, and ripping them apart. She was losing HP internally. Sans knew a fair amount of how HP worked. How much one could take in a fight; how much they were willing to give, and what they had to fight for. He himself only had 1 HP. It used to be higher, but all of the failed attempts at the machine, and watching Frisk unwillingly kill all of his friends and the only family member he had left… it took its toll on him.

It was day four of her stay too. If he didn't send her home sometime before the end of the next day, her mom would begin asking around. The police would get involved, and they wouldn't find anything of her. She would disappear permanently from her world, and fade away in this one.

Sans wouldn't lie that he hoped that if she did awake, she would still be able to return here to see him. He wasn't as fond of the video chats and messages. He liked seeing her in person. She was a… blessing, he guessed, that helped him in more ways than he imagined. Now though? Now she was suffering because of him.

A blessing. Grillby thought so too, when he watched him and her interact. Whatever bond he had developed with Hope, was quite possibly on some level with Frisk and his own brother. She was almost like the little sister he never had. More clever and sarcastic than Papyrus, but maintained the innocence and childlike air around her. She knew things that they didn't though, and he could say stuff he was never able to tell another person. Monster, or human.

"wonder what you're doin' right now." Sans brushed the hair out of her face, sighing. "it's hard to figure out an idea without your assistance, kid. you'd probably have some idea that i just haven't seen yet."

Hope mumbled almost mutely in her coma, and her head lightly moved to face him. __that's new.__ That was a good sign. She was not out entirely. __okay, bone boy, let's check her out again.__ With a flick of his wrist, the soft green heart floated out of her chest. Bobbing up and down over her, he scanned it over. __8 HP.__ Lower than it was when she collapsed, but thankfully it didn't drop any further since then.

Another advantage was he wasn't a shaking stuttering wreck like when he found her too. So that's a plus, he guessed.

"Sans? Is everything alright?" Toriel walked in through the door, holding a plate of butterscotch-cinnamon pie. She looked from Hope to him, and hummed, displeased. "There's been no progress?"

Sans took the plate from her, and shook his skull negatively. "nope. little movements here and there, but that's it." He depressingly took a bite, and sat it down on Hope's nightstand. "tori, what if… you think she'll wake up, right?"

"She will, Sans. Hope is too determined to give up." Toriel knew how he felt. Hope… she was just like Chara. Lying helpless in their bed, teetering on the edge of life and death. Sans hadn't known Hope for very long, but the two had become as close as Asriel and Chara had been. A monster and a human, both from different worlds, practically joined at the hip. "I'll leave you two alone, Sans." She patted his shoulder, and turned to walk back out of the room. Before closing the door behind her, Toriel gave the human and skeleton one last sad look. __Good luck, my child.__ With that, the two were alone once again.

"oh, boy." Tilting his head back, he repeated in his head what Toriel had said. Hope was determined. Almost as much as the kid was. But there was a reason she was kindness. The cartoon styled heart glowed as if it agreed with that, and moved back into her chest. Hope had only ever been mad once or twice since they met, and she always apologized right afterwards. Still, all of that was due to the hurt she had piled onto herself over the years. She had possibly started off as kindness, but she had forced herself to act out that trait more and more. She always worried about his feelings, and wanted him to feel safe and happy. The teen was his lifeline in this final reset. Without her… who knows what would happen.

Would they… be forced into another timeline?

No. N-no. Never again. Hope would never allow it, and neither would he.

But right now, forget the resets. Forget… forget about dad. Right now, it was Hope's turn. She was his top priority.

"kid, if you've got an idea, i'd sure love to hear it," Sans told her. He held his hand to his chest, and brought his own white soul. The yellow and blue ribbons still lit up the heart in a kaleidoscope, casting a glow on his face. "i really am a bad friend, huh?"

Her soul. He couldn't see anything wrong with it. On the outside, she looked perfectly healthy, minus the clammy skin. There was something going wrong with her soul because of the void. The wall she said she had hit was more than likely the direct cause, but… why? And how? What factor did he forget to add into the equation. __wait a second,__ Sans thought. __is… this what kept gaster from coming back?__ A wall. He knew that there was something that separated the void in between them. A blockade held her back, and forcing her through it must have damaged her. __maybe it's not her molecules like i initially thought. maybe it is her soul.__ Left eye flickering, he scanned her again, but focused not just on her HP.

Checking her small bio, his pupils shrunk at the description. "HOPE. 5 ATK. 10 DEF. Your best friend. Cannot survive with a corrupted soul." __corrupted soul?__ Quickly, with the hand not holding his own soul, he brought the green heart back out again, and leaned in closely to look it over. It was small, but there it was. A chunk of her soul, in the top right corner, was ****black****. Black, with vein-like purple lines that faded into the green.

How had he not noticed that before!?

"aw, crud." The virus that attached itself to her would only continue to drain her HP. There was no conventional method he could think of to stop it, except… no. No, that's ridiculous. He couldn't do that to a soul of all things!

… right?

If he did, then he needed something to replace what was taken. The green glow increased for a moment, and Sans smiled bitterly. It was as if she was trying to reassure him. If he wanted to do this, he needed a human to willingly give up part of their own soul, their own existence, for someone they never met before. But in order to do that… they had to be the same attribute. He needed kindness.

But the monster couldn't just go running around all over Ebott asking people to help him. "it was a good plan while it was still being thought about," he grumbled. Hope's soul faded its glow, sensing his distress, and without any force, bobbed a little closer to him. "huh?" Were they really that close, that even with her mind trapped, she could tell he was in pain? "heh. thanks, kiddo." Holding out his hand, he allowed her soul to move onto it. He studied the two hearts, watching as the glowing souls pulsed in unity. His blue and yellow traits, swirled together, happily trying to blend into… green.

 _ _blue and yellow… make green.__ His eyes quickly switched from his soul to Hope's and he watched as his began to beat faster. __it's… it's crazy, but… this might work.__ He pushed her soul back into her chest, and followed through with his own before teleporting down to his lab. Sans didn't have the time to walk. He needed to hurry.

* * *

"Gaster?" Hope asked, looking up at the 'sky'. "What happens if I don't return to my body? Sans' world… will it end up being reset again by another player?" Her focus was cut in half, stressing over both matters. Sans, who was beside her failing form in his world… and her mother. She said she would return, and she meant that. But how could she do that, when she wasn't in either world to begin with?

"It is exactly what you gravely assume, child. You may see yourself as no longer a player, but you're still an anomaly capable of altering their dimension. Without your presence in either world, your hold would vanish. Sans, Papyrus, everyone would be sent back to the Underground again. And as for you… your mind would remain trapped in the void, just like myself." Gaster hummed in thought, clearly trying to distract himself, before looking down at the purple lines beside him. "Hmm… interesting."

"What is?" Hope asked quickly, looking down too. How was he even seeing things? Was it like he said, and residing in this weird dimension let him develop skills? "The code?"

"It appears as if my son has a plan to bring you back," Gaster said, sockets wide in surprise. "And it's not conventional either."

"What the-what's he planning?" Gaster placed a hand on the lines, and a dark purple glow swirled around the skeletal appendage. Sans was blue, so… she guessed the red might be Papyrus. But Papyrus was orange. So… it was hard to determine where they got the color from.

"Give me your hand." She slid her pale hand into his, and he pressed her palm on the code. Instantly, Hope felt as if she was looking through a funnel, with her vision zooming to a point at the very end. She could still see Gaster, but it was like a split tunnel vision. A partially blurry, light purple hued vision. In the back of her mind, she watched the short skeleton run around his lab, gathering a pair of medical scissors, a roll of thick bandages, and a towel. All the while, the entire scene was muted, leaving his mutterings to the imagination.

"Sans," she breathed. His hand let go of hers, and she blinked away tears as her sight returned to normal, having to focus to get a clear enough image. "Gaster, what's he doing?"

* * *

"oh, this is gonna be the stupidest and craziest thing i've ever done." He teleported back to Hope's room, and dropped the towel and bandages at the foot of the bed. Bringing her soul back out again, Sans gripped the scissors shakily. If he messed up… he'd lose her forever. __steady, sans. nice and slow.__ Making certain that his hand wasn't moving anymore than it was, he took a deep breath… and pinched her soul with the scissors.

Immediately, Hope's body convulsed, throwing herself up and down on the bed. He had to act quickly now. There was no time for being slow there. As fast as he could, Sans continued snipping at the heart, which was hard to do without touching it with his hands. With precise movements, he cut away the corrupted part, making certain that he didn't accidentally cut her soul any further than what was needed.

Cutting away the last strand of the heart, the corrupted piece crumbled to dust in front of him, without any body to maintain a hold of. The black and speckled purple dust fell on the covers, and Sans turned his attention to bringing his own soul out. "this is gonna hurt." Wincing, he slid the scissors under the yellow and blue ribbons, and clenched his hand, chopping through the light as the blades came together. Grimacing in pain, he watched the colors begin to fade, and quickly moved the scissors and snipped off a piece of justice and patience. Eye violently flashing blue, he used his free hand to grip his soul. Once he was certain the pain had died down enough, and that he forced enough magic into his palm, he let go.

The traits had fused back together, but a scar was noticeable where the traits were severed. It made sense. Of course using the magic generated from the damaged soul itself wouldn't let it heal perfectly. He could live with that. __now, phase two.__ Pushing his soul back into his chest, he took Hope's soul in one hand, and the small pieces of his own soul. The ribbons swirled around his hand, trying to find something to reattach to. __one. two. three!__ He clamped his hands together, focusing all of his magic into the green heart.

When they first met, he instinctively hated her. He didn't trust her, or anything she said. But when she showed how much she felt guilty about what the other players have done to him and the kid… he gave her a chance. That chance allowed him to find someone who could help him find Gaster, stop the resets forever, and bring him hope. Hope that… that had faded, and been beaten senselessly over the years, with every reset and fear of never living a normal life again. Socket blaring with magic, he felt the cyan flames almost creep over the top of his skull. __almost… there!__ With a shout bordering on a scream, he pushed his hands down on her chest, and her body jolted at the contact, as if it was being electrocuted. Pulling back, he swiped at the sweat on his head, panting. __i… need to… check.__ Struggling, he used what small amount of magic he had left after exhausting himself to scan her, and smiled tiredly.

HP… was 10, and rising steadily.

He did it. His justice and patience made her kindness. Then… how does this affect him? Sans frowned, and checked himself. "oh my god."

His HP… wasn't 1. It-it was always 1. For as long as he could remember, ever since the first few resets and the first genocide timeline, it was 1. How could it-it actually rose? "n-no way. i'm at 8?" How though? He never changed his soul except trimming off part of his own to fuse with Hope's. What could possibly… __hope.__

She raised his HP. All of the joy, and fun, and… love, she gave him, had risen it. She did something that Papyrus hadn't been able to do in years. "heh. hehe. ha ha ha ha ha!" Hope smiled softly, and he felt through his soul that the girl's had warmed up at his happiness. "kid, you really ****are**** something special."

* * *

"Gaster?" Hope and him were standing up, and she watched as the skeleton seemed to almost fade from her vision. "What's happening to me?" Gaster smiled, and brought a hand to her cheek.

"It appears as if my son's risk has paid off. You are returning back to your body." His smiled seemed more strained now, and he sighed. "You're returning back to him. Something that… I haven't been able to accomplish in decades." He brought his arms around the teen, and pulled her into a gentle hug. "Can you do me a favor, Hope?" She nodded into his jacket. "Tell Sans it's no use worrying over me. Tell him I'll always be watching over him. He should be able to fulfill his life without the constant stress of me." Gaster felt tears prick at his eyes, and he laughed shakily. "He's yours to worry over now. Not mine."

"I… I promise, Gaster," she whispered, feeling herself slowly fade away from the elder skeleton. "I promise." __I'm coming home, Sans.__

* * *

 ** **Done!****

 ** **This chapter took a while to plan out. Needed a way for Sans to help her return to her body. But I think this turned out nicely.****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	15. HOPE Says Goodbye

****Disclaimer: Second last chapter. How time flies, huh? Of course, we still have the epilogue left. I hope everyone's been enjoying HOPE! I know I have!****

 ** **StoriesUnleashed: Thanks! Who knew that in order to have a popular story, I just had to bring in the feels?****

 ** **AGirl: Aren't I evil? ;)****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: AAAAAAAAAA!****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Limited contact with people makes one a little… Gaster. I can probably write an entire chapter on how much of a goofball he is.****

 ** **DragonNOOB: I update every few days to at least two weeks. University throw me off my schedule.****

 ** **MemorySteel: Then what's the one-fifth? Glad you liked the chapter. I enjoy coming at the fantasy aspect of Undertale through a scientific outlook.****

 ** **Junior VB (times 8): Thanks for the reviews!****

 ** **I own Hope!****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 **Edited: Sept. 25/18**

* * *

Sans hummed to himself, and sat down the polished plate beside him on the table beside the bed. 8 HP. 8! The new information almost made him laugh again. He had 1 HP for so long, he never imagined it rising it again. He had essentially given up long ago, and didn't care about trying to raise it. It was still low, but it meant he could take a little injury in a fight if he was thrown into one.

Hope was never going to believe this either, when she woke up. She probably never imagined HP could change as well. __hehe, she's in for a shock when she__ _ _comes to__ _ _.__ Not to mention her own… changes, to her soul.

She had part of his soul… combined with hers. She was a human with, no matter how small it was, a monster soul fragment. True, he only gave her part of his two traits, but they were still apart of the white heart. How was this going to affect the two of them? When he was laughing earlier, he could've sworn that Hope's soul could sense his emotions. A small feeling of happiness, that didn't seem to be all his own. Did sharing a piece connect them together? Not only a physical level, but on a mental and emotional one too?

"S… Sans…?" Sans looked down at the girl, and his permanent grin brightened. Hope's misty blue eyes fluttered open, and she looked around her in confusion. "I'm… back in my room…?" Slowly, she finally noticed she wasn't alone, and turned her head to see a beaming skeleton. "Sans? Am I… am I back?"

"you're back, kiddo." Reaching over, he patted her forehead, chuckling. "you're back. mind tellin' me where you went?"

"I-I went…" Hope's eyes widened as the memories settled in, and she bolted upright. Sans jumped back, and Hope stared at him wide eyed. __is she crying?__ Tears ran down her face, and Hope wiped them from her cheeks. "Sans, he-he wanted me to tell you something!" Her voice came out a little louder than she meant to, but she had to tell him. She had to tell him what he told her.

"he?" No. She… she couldn't have seen Gaster, could she? She wasn't fully in the void, but… then where was her mind? "y-you saw gaster?" Sans asked, leaning forward and hands on his knees.

"He… he wanted me to tell you to stop worrying about him, Sans. He's fine. He never left you." He was always watching him, Papyrus… her. He was making sure things were improving, and healing. "Gaster never left you, Sans. He wants you to move on, and find someone else to fret over." She paused, reflecting over his final words. "You're mine to worry over now, not his."

 _ _h__ _ _e really said that?__ He… he really did waste his resets away, didn't he? Glowing tears pricked his own sockets, and he reached forward and pulled the human into a hug. Hope tensed, but brought her arms up around him. "thank you, dad," he mumbled into her shoulder. "thank you." She was right. Dad was right. H-he couldn't continue worrying about him. Ever since they gotten more acquainted with each other, he had hardly thought about him. He had only been thinking about Hope. "heh… hehe… please, kid, don't leave me again." Hope looked at his skull, and lifted a hand to rub the back of the bone.

 _ _Why… do I feel so happy… and so sad?__ It was inside of her, the feeling. In her… soul? "I won't, Sans. You're never gonna lose me again." The monster chuckled shakily, and after holding her for a few more seconds, let her go. He reached to wipe at his own sockets, as the two shared a sad smile. _I think this is the first time we've ever really expressed that much emotion around each other._ "Sans, um… when I was with Gaster in the void, he showed me that he could watch the players connected to your world, and your world in general. He showed you grabbing those from your lab." She pointed at the scissors, towel, and bandages at her feet. "Sans, what exactly did you do to me?"

Sans studied her face, seeing the twinge of nervousness in it. "summon your soul, hope. i think you're gonna like this." Shrugging off the cryptic answer, she brought a hand to her chest, and felt the strange tugging as her soul was pulled out into the open. "see?"

"Sans, you…?" Her soul was still the green she saw when she first arrived, but… the right corner… what was that? It was a brighter shade, with small flecks of yellow and blue around it. The biggest shock though… was the outline of the corner, which contained the strange section, was the same white as Sans'… soul. "You gave me part of your soul," Hope said, barely above a whisper. "I'm… I have a part of you in my soul."

"it was the quickest thing i could think of, pal." Sans rubbed the back of his neck. "the void wasn't hurting your body. it was your soul it was attacking. i had to cut off the virus before it spread any further." He pointed at the floor, and Hope leaned over the edge to see a small pile of black and purple dust. "yeah, that… that was you."

"You… cut off part of my soul." Hope held her hand out, and the heart moved to hover over it. "So… this is you? That odd coloring?"

"yep." Hope watched the skeleton bring out his own soul, and gasped. Small lines indicating scarring or stitches were visible along the color circling around it. "you've got a part of my soul in yours now. it's small, yeah, but it's keeping yours from breaking down."

"So, what does that mean for us?" The souls pulsed gently in union, and Hope felt a soothing feeling course through her. "Sans, how connected are we? Now that… this, happened?"

"you feel it too, don't you? that sensation like you're feeling something else over than your own feelings? that's me, kid." He pushed the soul back into his chest, and grabbed Hope's wrist. Bringing her heart up in between them, the glow bounced off their faces, bathing them in a pleasant warmth. "no matter where you go, or how far away you get, we're always gonna be connected now."

"Even across dimensions." Together, they pushed her soul back into her, and smiled at each other. Glowing pinpricks and shining blue pupils. __Together forever.__ "We're way too much like Chara and Asriel, aren't we?"

Sans blinked at that, and gave a wide grin before erupting into a round of laughter. "ha ha ha ha! tori… she said the exact same thing before i brought you back! ha ha ha ha ha!" Hope giggled, and joined in his laughter. The skeleton calmed down for a second, his grin appearing more mischievously, and lunged at the girl.

"Sans! Ha ha ha!" Knocking the girl over, the two wrestled on the bed before Sans pinned her beside him, the two's giggling bouncing off the wall. "You-you're tickling me!"

"this is for worryin' me all week!" He cried, and turned onto his side, and continued digging his bony fingers into her sides. "geeeet dunked on!"

"Sans! U-uncle! Uncle!"

"don't you mean, puncle?"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"SANS? ARE YOU ALRIGHT? ME, TORIEL, AND FRISK HEARD YOU SCREAMING FROM DOWNSTAIRS? WHAT'S GOING-?" Papyrus opened the door, and stuck his head into the room. "OH! HOPE! YOU ARE AWAKE!" He turned to look behind him. "I TOLD YOU, SHE WOULD BE FINE!"

"It appears as of you were right." The door fully opened, and Toriel stepped in with Papyrus. Frisk stood in front of them, and their face lit up. "Good evening, Hope. How are you feeling?"

"I slept like the dead," Hope grinned, earning a groan from Papyrus and another laugh from Sans.

"HOPE! DON'T JOKE ABOUT THAT! YOU HAD US ALL WORRIED! ESPECIALLY SANS. HE NEVER LEFT YOUR SIDE ONCE. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, FRISK?"

"Uh-huh!" Frisk said, nodding quickly. "Sans was worried about you a lot." And when Sans was worried about something… yeesh, it got intense. They should know. They reallyshould know.

"Oh, really?" She smirked at Sans. A faint blue blush dusted his cheeks, and she leaned in closer. "And how worried were you?"

"i'm not having this conversation," he said quickly. "paps, can you go tell undyne and alphys? They should know about this."

"OKAY, SANS." Papyrus left the room, as Toriel walked closer to the teen.

"It really is nice to see you well again, Hope." She hummed softly, and patted Hope's head. "If only I could say the same for… you know."

"I know. I'm sure they wouldn't want you being sad about them. They'd want you to be happy, and move on with your life." Same as Sans and Gaster. Exactly like them.

"Hee hee. You are just as strange as Frisk is," Toriel said, dabbing her own eyes. It didn't look as if she were crying, Hope noticed, but she might not have been taking the chances. "I assume you will be leaving tonight then? Sans, let us know when you're ready? We wish to say farewell." She took Frisk's hand in her own, and led the child out of the room. Frisk paused, letting Toriel go on ahead of her and turned back to the two.

"Thank you for saving Sans, Hope. He's something that I haven't been able to do in all of my times Underground." They giggled, and chased after their mom. Sans and Hope stared at where they last stood, and turned to look at each other.

"Good job, bone boy," Hope grinned, struggling to hold back her giggles. "You… you did it."

Sans chuckled, and wrapped an arm around the girl, pulling her into a one-armed hug. "nah, kid. we did it."

(Time Skip)

Well, it was finally time.

Sans and Hope stood in front of the machine, with Toriel, Papyrus, Frisk, Undyne, and Alphys in the back. The time had come to send her back through, and this time, Sans made sure he weakened the wall enough to send her through. Hope sighed, and smiled as she reflected over it all. It certainly was an eventful few days. She ate at New-Grillby's and found herself a friend with the bar owner himself, tried some butterscotch-cinnamon pie freshly baked with Toriel before getting into a conversation about hers and Frisk's lives on the surface, and got to meet Gaster in the void. Not many people could say they did all of that.

"Guys." Hope turned around, and grinned at the monsters and child. Her bag was already placed into the machine, ready to when she was done her goodbyes. "Thank you for everything. I've had an amazing time."

"We only wish it had gone smoother," Toriel replied, patting Frisk's head. "It was very nice to meet you, Hope."

"Same here, punk," Undyne agreed. Her arms were wrapped around Alphys, making the yellow lizard blush furiously. "Next time, we're having a cooking lesson, just like the one me and Frisk had!"

Oh, she could live without burning her eyebrows off. "I'll, hehe, keep that in mind." Hope rubbed the back of her neck. Papyrus walked over to her, and brought her into another bone crushing hug. __Hehehe. Internal pun… ow.__

"IT HAD BEEN A GREAT TIME HAVING YOU HERE, HOPE!" Papyrus put her back down, and the girl stretched her back painfully. Frisk silently giggled, and Hope cast a small glare at them. How could they put up with that on a regular basis? "WILL YOU COME BACK THOUGH?" He frowned, unsure of the answer. "I DO NOT WISH FOR YOU TO HURT YOURSELF, AND NEITHER DOES SANS."

Sans shuffled beside Hope, and chuckled. "don't worry, paps. we've figured out how to transport her without… that, happening again. it's just a matter of weakening the wall between dimensions, and redoing some calculations with alphys' input. doing that, pulling her through won't be a problem." After a lengthy discussion after Frisk left the room, they had both come to a clear conclusion. He could change the code, not as much as Gaster could, but enough to change how strong or weak the barrier was. How else would he have been able to send out the code, connect her laptop to his machine, and even bring her there? Lowering the density as she approached it, instead of forcing her through, would let her body to pass through without any consequences. Plus, testing a few articles of clothing Hope brought with her proved useful. Checking the camera showed it all returned to her room without any trouble at all.

 _ _if only i thought of this sooner when we first saw that blockade,__ Sans winced. He pulled her through the wall, thinking that she was stuck. He never had known about what pain she had been through. But when he realized that burst of sparks was her screaming in clear torture… it destroyed him. He hadn't meant to almost kill her. He'd kill Frisk-Chara… it was Chara, during the genocide runs. He hated the redheaded brat, but when he found out both children were being controlled… what was he supposed to do?

Make things right. During one of the times he wasn't chatting with Hope online, he had apologized to Frisk for everything he'd put them through. He then asked for them to try and bring Chara up to the surface a few days later. Frisk was shocked at the request, but nodded anyway in mute defeat. Closing their brown eyes, they reopened to reveal shining ruby red orbs. Their posture straightened, and the demeanor of the pleasant child had changed considerably.

Chara.

It was no surprise they knew why they were called. The first fallen human was more observant than Frisk, picking up on behaviors and secrets. Guess that's what happened when you knew about all the timelines and the pasts of every monster. Chara had glared at him full-force, and asked what he wanted. Sans, shrugging with a flash of cyan in his left eye, began to tell them what Hope had told him. He told them everything.

He could have done this with Frisk. Whatever one child heard, the other did too. But he knew that Chara should be the one he had to speak with. As he told them how they were controlled by players from Hope's world, their face switched from anger, to confusion, and when the tale ended… sadness.

Sans had never seen the demon child so… young. Chara looked to the side, then back to him, biting their lip. "Listen, skeleton. I'm not apologizing for trying to kill you guys. You monsters… you've never tried to bring me or Asriel back. You left us there… and kept killing innocent children!" They snarled, eyes burning in rage. "You'd expect me to just rest in peace!?" They took several breathes, trying to calm down. "I wanted revenge on humanity, just as much as you all did," they admitted, head downcast. "I never asked for more children to die because of a foolish mistake I made."

They puffed out their cheeks, and brought their red eyes back to his sockets. "S… Sans. You said this human isn't gonna cause us to be reset again, right?" He nodded. "Make sure they don't. Make sure we stay this way."

And he did. They wouldn't be going back to the way they were before. "we're staying together." Sans beamed at the monsters and Hope. "we're not goin' back to the way things were before." Hope smiled, and walked back over to him. "time to get goin', kiddo. you guys mind givin' us a moment?"

"Of course, Sans." Toriel walked over to her, and enveloped the girl in a final hug. "Until we meet again, my child." Toriel… reminded her a lot of her own mom. Funny, but gentle and protective. She smelled of her homemade pie, and her fur was soft. __Like silk, like her dress.__ She really did like Toriel, and she was going to miss her. Not as much as Sans, but more than the others.

"Goodbye, Toriel. Thanks for watching over me alongside Sans." They let go, and Toriel walked over to Frisk, taking their hand. "Nice meeting you, Frisk." Frisk smiled, and gave a thumbs up. __Still a child of few words.__ Waving farewell, the group headed back up the stairs, Toriel and Frisk being the last ones to ascend. Frisk looked over their shoulder, and smiled widely.

"Thank you, from both of us." Winking, Toriel led them upstairs, leaving Sans and Hope to settle their things.

"Both of us?" Hope repeated, "Do they mean them and Toriel, or… Chara?" She had never even heard about the other human the entire time she was here. What could she have done to get that response?

"they meant chara." Sans turned around, and began to input the code. "i had a word with them before i brought you into my dimension. they… weren't as evil as i'd thought they were. just like the kid, they were being controlled by you players." The humming of the portal increased, and he grinned bitterly. __It's… time.__ "you ready, kid? uh, hope?"

"Were… was Chara mad? For what the players put them through?" They weren't or genocidal as the game had made them out to be? She never had as much of an answer, as she didn't want to bring up the kid to Sans while they were trying to figure everything else out.

"kid, they were furious at the start. but, they weren't as mad as they could've been. after all, they do listen and watch through frisk's eyes. they want this to be other, just as much as we do. all they and the kid want is the resets and controlling to stop." Sans smiled, trying to calm her. "they're fine with you, kid. welp, heh, looks like things are finally ready to go."

Hope moved to the capsule, and placed a hand on the glass box. This was it, then. It was time for her to return home, and resume a normal life. After the last few days though, that would… be hard to do. Forgetting the fact about now being able to move from her world to his own, she had part of his soul in hers. _Together until the end._ That gave that saying a new meaning.

"Sans? We'll… still see each other, right? Video chats, messaging, and coming here to see you?" Hope asked, peering at him. Sans chuckled, and walked over to her. Wrapping an arm around her-her waist, not her shoulder. He was unfortunately too short for that-he looked at the machine.

"we'll keep things normal, hope. even with your future schooling." She was going to university, so he expected things to change, even more now with their bond. "hehe. y'know, this is a lot more harder than when i've gone and sent frisk to meet asgore."

"Don't worry, Sans. I know why." Hope looked down at him, grinning cheekily. "You love me! You love me! You truly, truly love me!" She sang, earning a blue blushing reaction from him. "There we go!"

"you enjoy teasing me, don't you?" He rubbed his cheek, trying to hide the cyan in his bones. __why couldn't my blush be silver, or white? why does it have to match my magic?__ "yeah, pal. i love ya too." He brought her into a hug, and felt her hand on the back of his skull.

"I'll miss you, bone boy. Until next time?" They let go, and she walked backwards into the box. Sans moved to the control panel, and gave a small salute. Skeletal fingers dashing over the keyboards, Hope's vision began to blur, and her head began to spin just as she did when she first was pulled through her laptop.

"you bet, kiddo." Hope vanished from the room in a burst of data, drifting through the nozzle at the top. "until next time." Sans was alone in the room once again. But he felt, in his chest, in his ****soul**** , that she would be fine. He would be fine.

 _ _our dimension will be fine.__

* * *

 ** **Only one chapter left, people. Can't believe this had gotten so much attention. Then again, it was a really weird idea.****

 ** **I'm debating if sometime in the future, I should make a sequel to this. If you guys think so, let me know!****

 ** **Until next time!****

 ** **Angel****


	16. HOPE, Skeletons, and the Future

****Disclaimer: I wrote this so quickly, I just had to post this. 2 chapters in one week is impressive, even if it's such a small thing. Plus, I have midterms upon midterms, so... this is it.****

 ** **dream1990: Dully noted.****

 ** **FrostyAngelWings: YEEESSSSS!****

 ** **DannyPhantom619: Yes it is.****

 ** **AGirl: Good. Seeing the amount of interest with that question, I'll probably write something in the future.****

 ** **MajorKO: Thank you!****

 ** **Draconian Master: Thanks!****

 ** **ponystoriesandothers: Shipping… I don't really know. I'm torn if I want to have Hope and Sans paired up.****

 ** **Pizzas Cat: Thanks!****

 ** **MemorySteel: No loose strings here!****

 ** **Lolman211: It'll be a while, if I do start anything.****

 ** **I own Hope!****

"Speaking"

 _ _Thinking__

 ** **Typing****

 ** **Edited: Sept. 9/18****

* * *

 ** **Hey, bone boy! Bone boy, bone boy, bone boy! Pick up! Pick up! PICK UP!****

 ** **geez, kiddo, can't wait, can ya? how's university?****

 ** **Besides the impending horror of finals? I'm fine. Things are good.****

Things had certainly changed since Hope's brief stay in Ebott. Graduating her class with excellent marks, she had rushed to find a summer job at the local grocer before heading off to university. Two months could fly by really quickly, and the next thing she knew, she was throwing clothing and binders in bins and heading off on her own. Still… computers and physics. It took a lot to build up to that high of a level in both choices. She had to start with basic programming, hard calculus, figuring out laws she never had even heard of; overall, it was stressful. But luckily, she still had her skelebro to rant to.

In fact, she had heard a news article about some teen not that much younger than her, maybe a year or two, who had shown an interest in coming to that same university up in Canada. She had talked about it with her teachers and parents, and had slowly started to make applications to come once she reached grade 12. However…

She vanished. Nobody knew where she went, or how it happened. She was just… gone. Part of Hope had feared the worst for the girl, but after learning about the connection she made with Sans in a different dimension, she wondered if something similar had happened to her. No one just… vanished into thin air. There must have been a reason for it. _I just hope that Milton kid is happy wherever she is._

Sans had made sure to message her at least once per day, assisting her in her coding and mathematics. __Ah, the benefits of having a genius as a friend__. The monster world had settled even more since she had visited, seeing that several months had flown by there as well. The larger amount of monster haters had slowly begun to dwindle down, making Sans feel more comfortable walking down the streets without being on the receiving end of nasty glares. There were still some around, but by now, the good greatly outweighed the bad. Humans had begun to visit Grillby's bar more often, which helped increase his revenue. Grillby had even asked him about Hope when he saw she was no longer with him, to which he responded she'd gone home.

The elemental had said he'd sounded sad when he told him, with a knowing gleam in his flames. He wasn't sad, no. Sans was happy for her. She had graduated high school, and was off to higher education. That's what she wanted. Plus, they weren't dropping contact altogether. Their emails and video chats had picked up at a breakneck speed, and one was never seen by their dorm mates without mentioning the other in a conversation. Of course, Hope would refer to him as 'Sam', but he was fine with that. They were each other's best friend, regardless of wherever the other one was.

 ** **So, Sans. How is Frisky Bits doing?****

The screen paused for a second, and no doubt Sans was laughing at the odd nickname she had given the child. ****good. they're entering grade five soon. nervous, but tori is teaching that class, so they'll be fine. the school even introduced a monster history course into its curriculum.****

 ** **Really? Cool.**** She grinned, before sighing. "Man, wouldn't that be fun to hear about. Maybe I can have Sans try and send me her notes about it?" Looking to the side, she glared at the printer set up on a table beside her, and the small stack of papers on top. "Creative licensing, my butt." ****Hey, Sans. Remember how I told you I used what happened in your dimension, about my adventure, as a plot idea for a short story**** ** **for that English class of mine as my final project?****

 ** **yeah? what 'bout it?**** She had mentioned it once, when she was starting it out. She didn't share much about it, except that she was inspired by her time in Ebott with him. In truth, it was more about how souls existed and how they could connect to each other. _c_ _onnect, just like ours are._

 ** **Apparently, it's too freaking similar to Undertale!**** She slapped a hand to her head, groaning. Was it her fault that everything else was too hard to change? Changing the story too much meant changing all of the wonderful experiences she had!

 ** **you didn't change**** ** **it enough**** ** **? why?****

 ** **I couldn't lie about my adventures, Sans! Being honest kind of goes along with kindness.****

 ** **fair enough. hold on a sec.**** "ah, there we go!" The email minimized, and Sans' skull filled up the screen. "better?"

"Better." The two grinned, and Sans looked behind her. Her dorm room was small, but it showed off her personality. Stuffed toys from her favorite shows, movies, and video games decorated a shelf-light above her bed, and there were four posters stuck up around the walls.

Two of them were Undertale. One was a hologram poster with the entire crew surrounded by yellow flowers. The other was split down the middle with Chara smiling sadistically on one side, twirling a knife covered in gray dust. The other side was of him with his eye flashing, a blaster at the ready behind his head and charging up.

The girl had a genocide poster and a pacifist poster. He… wasn't sure how to react about that.

Then again, one of the stuffed toys she had was of Toriel. Hehehe. Ah, he was gonna love making puns of that around the monster down the road. The girl brushed a strand of hair out of her face, smiling at him cheekily. "hey, hope. when do you think you can come back?" He wasn't anxious. He wasn't.

…

 _okay, fine. i'm anxious._

Six months. She had been gone from Ebott for six months. Two being her summer break, and the other four were of her in school. She had to come back soon, right?

"I'm sorry, Sans. But with four exams coming up soon, I need to stay on top of my school work. First year might not be as huge as third or fourth, but I can't fall behind." Hope sighed. It hurt to keep putting off the idea of making a second visit. She would gladly go see him in a heartbeat. Well… their heartbeat.

The bonding of their souls thing was still an… interesting thing. Hope didn't think she'd ever get used to it, and neither would Sans. The worst of it was as there had never been a case of this happening before, they had to figure it out themselves. And what they had figured out was that one could feel what the other was feeling, despite the distance between them. How many times in class, in an hour long lecture surrounded by 500 other people would she start feeling angry or tired… or start giggling to herself for no reason? Possibly over some pun the skeleton had made to Frisk or Papyrus in his dimension? Emotions traveled between them so much more easily, it was sometimes actually hard to tell which was hers, and which was his. Her mom was worried about her mental state at one point, around the very start, when she had started laughing hysterically during supper. However, with the amount of chats they had done, and the amount of research Sans put into it, they were able to control how much the other felt. Intense emotions could still get through, but it was a rare time now if it ever happened.

"i really can't convince you to come?" Sans muttered, closing his sockets. __welp, looks like i'm doin' this the hard way.__ The alternative was… going to be interesting. "can you hang on for a sec, kid? i need to go… do something."

"Uh, sure thing, Sans." He logged off, and she was booted back to the email. "What's he up to?" Shrugging, she pushed back from the desk, and moved the chair back under the desk. "Looks like I'll just get back to calculus then."

As she turned around from the laptop in her chair, letting the wooden legs slide on the cool floor, Hope froze as a crackling sound filled her tiny bedroom. _Oh, please don't start screaming at me again._ The crackling sound increased, accompanied _by a_ muffled yell coming from… somewhere behind her? "aahhhh!"

"Wh-AAHHH!" A large heavy object barreled into her, spinning her around and onto her bed. Her laptop's crackling quieted down until returning to normal, and the email screen returned from the blue screen that she had seen from receiving the wingdings the first time.

"uh… hehe. hey, hope." She looked up from her uncomfortable position on the old creaking mattress, and felt her mouth drop open. Sans was partially crushing her, as his legs were still hanging off the bed and his body was half on hers. _At an angle, seeing how I'm laying straight, but… wow, he's heavy._ Chuckling, he tried to shrug off the awkward position they were in. "nice of you to let me, heh, drop in."

"Heh… hehehe. Ha ha ha ha!" Laughing, Hope pulled herself up as Sans moved to stand on the floor. Once he had straightened himself, she threw her arms around the short skeleton while keeping herself balanced on the bed, burying face into his shoulder. "You're always welcomed, bone boy. I'm rattled without you." The skeleton gave a booming laugh, and he brought his own arms around her.

"i know, hope," he beamed. He ruffled the top of her hair, earning a laugh from her. "now, why don't you show me a little around your town, hm?"

* * *

 ** **Epilogue's short, but I really didn't have much more to add here. I think it's a perfect end to this sweet story.**** ** **And the changes that I've made had definitely improved it. Yeah, if you hadn't seen the two Ans after this, then this message wouldn't make sense.****

 ** **Thank you everyone for reading When All Else Fails: HOPE**** ** **!****

 ** **Angel****


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